By Jeff Lehr

jlehr@joplinglobe.com

A federal grand jury indicted a former Noel police officer Tuesday on charges of producing and possessing child pornography.

Casey J. Nanez, 27, who also served briefly as a reserve sheriff’s deputy in McDonald County, was charged in a two-count indictment handed up in U.S. District Court in Springfield.

Nanez was charged in June in McDonald County with sexual abuse of two underage girls. He is facing two counts of statutory rape, two counts of statutory sodomy, and single counts of misdemeanor child molestation and tampering with a witness in those state cases, which involve girls 15 and 16 years old.

Tuesday’s indictment alleges that Nanez used a minor to produce child pornography between Nov. 1, 2008, and May 1 of this year. The indictment also accuses him of possessing child pornography during that time frame.

A news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Western District of Missouri states that Nanez will be required to forfeit a desktop computer to the government if he is convicted of the offenses.

The computer was seized during the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department’s investigation of the defendant earlier this year. Sheriff Robert Evenson said at that time that the FBI also had an interest in the case.

Detective Chip Root of the Joplin Police Department told the Globe that the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, to which Root is assigned, assisted in the investigation of Nanez by previewing files found on that computer. A more detailed forensic analysis then was conducted by the FBI, Root said.

The U.S. attorney’s office did not reveal the age of any children involved in the alleged production of child pornography. But Root said the federal charges do not involve either of the two girls in the state’s case against the defendant.

In McDonald County, Nanez is accused of having sexual contact with a 16-year-old girl from Noel between December of last year and June. The abuse of a 15-year-old girl from Noel allegedly took place between July and November of 2008, according to court documents.

Background

Casey Nanez worked at the McDonald County Jail before taking a job as deputy town marshal in Noel under former Marshal Ozzie Amos. He was fired by the town council after Amos lost a re-election bid in April. Nanez then was hired as a reserve deputy for the McDonald County Sheriff’s Department.