“This is probably a case that will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
Nikole Babb, nbabb@cherryroad.com
Caution to readers: This article contains graphic material over the content of child sexual abuse and child pornography depicting real-life scenarios. Proceed with caution.
A federal criminal case was closed today after Joel Womochil of El Dorado was sentenced to 60 years behind bars. The case began in 2023 when he was arrested by the El Dorado Police Department on 34 charges. The district case has since been dropped due to the pending federal charges.
Joel Justice Womochil was arrested on August 15, 2023, after an investigation led by the El Dorado Police Department, Kansas Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Butler County Sheriffs Office. The evidence they found was grounds to arrest him on 34 charges in total, including 24 counts of sexual exploitation of a child and 10 counts of aggravated internet trading in child pornography.
But it wasn’t long before the US Marshal’s caught onto the crime and realized how far it would span, which ultimately was across state lines. They were able to file a complaint and arrest him on two charges including one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. Those charges were later amended to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploit – production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
As confusing as this case is, the amendments to charges continued at the federal level. In a third superseding indictment filed on October 1 of 2024, a grand jury filed the following eight charges against Womochil:
-Two counts for conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child related to the production of child pornography
-One count for distribution of child pornography
-One count for receipt of child pornography
-Two counts for solicitation of child pornography
-Two counts for possession of child pornography
Womochil entered a plea of not guilty in response to the indictment and a jury trial was scheduled for October 21 of 2024, which was cancelled shortly after. Womochil had changed his mind and petitioned to enter a plea deal with the United States District Court of Kansas on October 8 and a plea agreement was made on October 9. He plead guilty to two charges within the indictment, which are two counts for conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child relating to the production of child pornography. The counts are based on separate occasions with his co-conspirators, Denise Renee Sandmann of Indiana, and Jessica Lynn Quave of Council Grove, Kan.
The first count details that Sandmann recorded video files for Womocil that depict her sexually assaulting a three-year-old girl. The second count details Quave sexually assaulting, kissing and subjecting a young girl to oral sex whose exact age isn’t mentioned in the document, but is noted to be under the age of six at the time of recording. Quave used Snapchat to send the videos to Womochil.
Taylor M. Mullen of Council Grove, who lived with Quave and was arrested around the same time, is another co-conspirator listed in the federal case but was not mentioned in the plea agreement. He is being sentenced in early April.
In a federal court document certifying records from Snapchat, investigators found that Womochil would solicit child pornography from creators of the illegal content, sending disturbing messages. The messages indicated that he “had no limits to how young he could love,” referencing the age of a child in which he would be willing to sexually assault, including down to infancy.
Assistant U.S. Attorney and presiding attorney on the case, Molly Gordon, testified in detail to how violent and unspeakable the crimes were in this case.
“This is probably a case that will haunt me for the rest of my life,” said Gordon.
As part of the plea agreement, the United States District Court of Kansas agreed to dismiss the remaining counts of the Third Superseding Indictment (and earlier indictments and complaint) at the time of sentencing and to not file any additional charges against the defendant arising out of the basis for the present Third Superseding Indictment.
The case with the Butler County District Court has been dropped against Womochil as of April 2024. This leaves him with only two counts of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child relating to the production of child pornography and a maximum of 60 years in federal prison when all is said and done, despite the evidence and countless video files they found on his electronic devices, which total 18,000, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and court documents. Of those electronic files, 12,000 were found to be of child pornographic material with 6,000 unique victims.
“Just to be clear, these children were raped,” said United State District of Kansas District Judge John W. Broomes during the sentencing. “They can’t consent to this. It is egregious violence…. That’s sick. It’s evil.”
Judge Broomes continued later in the sentencing, articulating that the maximum sentence wasn’t enough but was all he could do.
“Countless lives have been ruined forever…” said Judge Broomes. “If I could, I’d have you hanged right here.”
The 39-year-old man’s case was unique to the court system and judge due to his previous employers, being the State of Kansas. Womochil was most recently, until he resigned upon arrest, the Chief of Police for the City of Burns Police Department in rural Kansas and had held employment at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office before that. He was sentenced to the maximum prison time available for his charges, 30 years per count, totaling 60 years, or 720 months, that will run consecutively at the Federal Corrections Institution in Petersburg, Virginia.
“When you have someone like this hiding behind a badge doing these crimes, it damages our community, our public service and law enforcement,” said Gordon
That specific federal institution offers sexual offender management programs that provide counseling to such offenders, which Womochil verbally sought out for sentencing. He’s been ordered to pay $529,050 in restation to the two minor child victims that were involved in the case.
“I’m deeply sorry for what I’ve done and the pain I’ve caused,” said Womochil during the sentencing on Thursday afternoon.
His co-conspirator Quave was sentenced in September 2024 to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child – production of child pornography. The second count, listed as count 8 in the second superseding indictment in the case, charging Quave with sexual exploitation of a child, was dismissed, even though court records do show there was video evidence found of such content. She was sentenced to 360 months, or 30 years of federal imprisonment in Victorville, California and ordered to pay $166,350 in restitution to the minor child victim involved in the case.
Co-conspirator Sandmann was sentenced on the same day as Womochil, just two hours later. She plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sexual exploitation of a child in the relation of the production of child pornography, and one count of sexual exploitation of a child through child pornography.
Before Sandmann’s hearing began on Thursday afternoon, she sat beside her defense, shaking and sobbing as she re-read her sentencing papers.
“Children have a right to be protected,” said Sandmann. “That was my job and I…..I’m thankful they have huge supports and thankful those that love them continue to love them. I have nothing to say for myself as everything is justified and right.”
Moments before, Sandmann’s defense did his best work to lessen the severity of her charges, trying to say that other than the consecutive, constant and documented sexual abuse and rape, the child’s home was ordinary and wasn’t the worst thing she could do to her victim, who were just three years old and three months old when Sandmann admitted to assaulting them.
“Other than the abuse mentioned, the child’s home was ordinary,” said Defense Attorney Keith Edwards. “The things she did were monsters but that doesn’t mean that she is a monster.”
Despite the words from her defense, Judge Broomes made his decision.
“This business that this was an ordinary home besides the raping and molesting permeates everything,” said Judge Broomes. “If I were authorized to give you the death penalty, I would, and I would not think twice.”
Sandmann was sentenced to 720 months or 60 years of federal imprisonment at an undisclosed institution. She was ordered to pay $189,700 in restitution to the minor child victim, among other identified victims, which totaled by roll call in the court room of over 30.
This case, though horrific and unimaginable in size and impact, is just one example in a jar of thousands that happen around the United States of America every year. The Crimes Against Children Research Center shows that one in five girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse; Of those children, three out of four adolescents who have been sexually assaulted were victimized by someone they knew well.
If you know of a child that is being sexually exploited or abused, use the toll-free 24/7 hotline to report it by calling 1-800-843-5678 or use the CyberTipline at https://report.cybertip.org/ or contact your local law enforcement agency.
03/28/2025 12:55pm: This article has been updated to remove identifying language of a minor victim in the case.
