Man’s sawed-off finger led to his indictment on child porn charges in North Texas
Following an FBI investigation, an Amarillo man was charged with producing child pornography and his son was charged with possessing and distributing child porn.
The father’s indictment came about in part because police identified his partially-sawed-off finger in a photo.
Charles Lee Kruse, 42, and Richard Lee Kruse, 63, were indicted Thursday following a search of Charles Kruses’ home in September and his laptop in November.
According to charges, Richard Kruse produced child porn of a child under the age of 5. Photos were found on Charles Kruse’s laptop showing the same boy in front of what appears to be Charles Kruse’s desk. The photos show the boy’s genitals.
The investigation into the Kruses began in Amarillo in September 2016 when a boy under the age of 5, referred to as John Doe, told police that Richard Kruse had sexually abused him.
Four days later on Sept. 19, police interviewed Richard Kruse who denied the abuse. On Sept. 20, Richard Kruse tried to kill himself, according to charges.
On Oct. 17, 2016, Richard Kruse was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a child. He was sentenced on Nov. 28, 2017. Court records do not show the length of his sentence.
An FBI Dallas Child Exploitation Task Force working undercover in Plano identified a computer that seemed to be distributing child pornography.
On Jan. 1 2018, the undercover agent traced the computer to Charles Kruse, charges state.
On Sept. 5, officers searched Charles Kruse’s home in Amarillo where he lived with his mother and step-father.
Charles Kruse, after initially denying that he had any child pornography, admitted to police he had a folder that contained over 1,000 images of child porn. He told police the folder came from thumb drives he took from his father, Richard Kruse.
Charles Kruse said he took the thumb drives after his father was accused of sexually abusing John Doe. Charles Kruse said while he saw nude photos of John Doe on his father’s thumb drives, he did not tell police.
On Nov. 7, police found images of John Doe on Charles Kruse’s computer. In one of the photos, a thumb and index finger missing the tip can be seen around John Doe’s waist.
Charles Kruse’s mother told police that Richard Kruse had previously sawed off part of his finger. Based on this information and fingerprints, police determined the index finger in the sexually explicit photo of Doe belongs to Richard Kruse.
Richard Kruse and Charles Kruse were arrested on Nov. 9. On Thursday, Charles Kruse was indicted on two charges — possessing and distributing child porn. Richard Kruse was indicted on a charge of producing child pornography and charged with sexual abuse to a child.
This story was originally published November 30, 2018 at 7:17 PM.
