Sarcoxie school board member charged with possessing child porn - KOAM TV 7

Updated March 7, 2013:  A Sarcoxie school board member charged in a pornography case is denied bail.

John Lewis, 67, is charged with possessing child pornography.

Authorities say Lewis exposed himself to a group of high school students who worked on his farm.  Investigators obtained a search warrant and say they found child porn images and videos on his computers.

The judge says he denied bail in part because of the danger Lewis possesses to the community.

Posted February 22, 2013:  News release issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Missouri:

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a member of the Sarcoxie, Mo., school board was charged in federal court today with possessing child pornography. 

John R. Lewis, 67, of Sarcoxie, was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court in Springfield with possessing child pornography. Lewis was arrested without incident prior to Thursday night's school board meeting and remains in federal custody pending a detention hearing.

According to an affidavit filed in support of today's federal criminal complaint, Missouri State Highway Patrol troopers contacted Lewis as part of their investigation into allegations that he had exposed himself to a group of high school students who were working for Lewis on his farm outside of Sarcoxie. The troopers obtained a search warrant for Lewis's residence and seized two desktop computers, a laptop computer and electronic storage devices.

Investigators determined that the computers contained 19 multimedia files of child pornography and 113 images of suspected child pornography. The multimedia files and images depicted children as young as five years old.

Dickinson cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Supervisory Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael S. Oliver. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol and the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force.

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