Portland, Oregon - An Oregon man was sentenced Monday to 17 years in prison for coercing and persuading multiple minors to send him sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves over the internet.
Kirk R. Cazee, 60, of Warrenton, was sentenced to 204 months in prison after pleading guilty to production of child pornography on April 28, 2021. Cazee was also sentenced to serve 99 years of supervised release and to register as a sex offender after completion of his prison term.
As described in court documents and testimony, in March 2010, a CyberTipline Report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), identified an email address that had been involved in the exchange of child pornography. Law enforcement traced the email address back to Cazee’s residence. Further investigation showed that beginning in 2006 and continuing to 2010, Cazee engaged in email and text communications with multiple minor victims. During the communications, Cazee posed as a teenage boy and coerced the minors to take sexually explicit photos and videos of themselves and to send the content to Cazee.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Scott Erik Asphaug for the District of Oregon and Special Agent in Charge Kieran L. Ramsey of the FBI’s Portland Field Office made the announcement.
The case was investigated by the Oregon Department of Justice and the FBI.
Trial Attorney Kaylynn Foulon of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Natalie Wight for the District of Oregon prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.
