Former architecture VP sentenced to 6 years for child porn

Jarod Michel, a former local architecture firm vice president, was sentenced yesterday to six years in federal prison without parole for receiving and distributing child pornography on the Internet.

Michel, who resigned from his leadership role with Bates & Associates Inc. the day before charges were filed last year, also is required to pay a $5,000 fine and forfeit a laptop used to commit the offense to the government, according to a news release from the office of Tammy Dickinson, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri.

Michel, who went by the alias Bull, pleaded guilty in June to the child pornography charges that occurred between July 18, 2013, and May 20, 2014.

Investigators found Michel used peer-to-peer file-sharing software to collect and distribute child pornography. When law enforcement officers executed a search warrant on Michel’s residence and seized his laptop, which contained 21 videos depicting children as young as 2 years old engaging in sexual acts with adults, according to the release.

Michel, who joined Bates & Associates in 2006 after receiving a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Drury University, was a member of Springfield Business Journal’s 2012 40 Under 40 class. He also served on the boards of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Ozarks and Ozark Trails Council for the Springfield Boy Scouts and was a charter member of Springfield’s Metro Rotary and a founding member of the Springfield Business Works networking group.

After Michel resigned in 2014, Bates & Associates conducted an internal audit of the firm’s computer devices, which came back clean. The illegal conduct occurred on his home computer, according to SBJ archives.