A former Camden County, Mo., sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer, previously charged with distributing child pornography, was indicted by a federal grand jury today on additional related charges.
Darrin Marshall Skinner, 49, was charged in a three-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Jefferson City. Today’s indictment replaces a criminal complaint filed against Skinner on Thursday, May 9, and includes additional charges.
Skinner was employed by Camden County as a deputy sheriff and assigned as a school resource officer in the Macks Creek School District. Prior to being hired by Camden County, he worked as a police officer in Osage Beach, Mo.
Today’s indictment contains the original charge of distributing child pornography. The indictment additionally charges Skinner with one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography.
According to an affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, the investigation began when the social media network MeWe reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tip Line that a user, later identified as Skinner, had uploaded images of child pornography. On June 7, 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent the report to the Camden County Sheriff’s Department. Due to Skinner’s connection to the department, the Missouri State Highway Patrol took over the case.
Investigators learned the email address allegedly used by Skinner was a member of several sexually themed social groups. On Aug. 1, 2023, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant and interviewed Skinner at his residence.
Investigators learned that MeWe had made a prior report to the Cyber Tip Line in 2020 related to a user identified as Skinner allegedly uploading multiple images of child sexual abuse through the application’s chat feature. Skinner allegedly sent child sexual abuse material on multiple occasions, including images of children under the age of 12 and a pre-school age child.
Skinner also shared several photos of prepubescent girls identified as being from the community with other users of the MeWe platform, the affidavit says. He cropped and adjusted these images to be more sexually suggestive. No local minors were contained in the images of child pornography. It is believed Skinner obtained some of these photos of local minors from social media since they were in gymnastics or dance clothes associated with a local gymnastics studio. The images were exchanged as part of sexually charged chats between Skinner and other MeWe users.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa A. Pierce. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol Digital Forensic Investigative Unit and the Missouri State Technical Assistance Team.
