Darrin Marshall Skinner, Child Pornography, Missouri 2024

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – In a stunning case of betrayal, a former Camden County sheriff’s deputy and school resource officer has been indicted on additional child pornography 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 that was 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 case was taken over by the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

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.

Skinner also shared a number of 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.

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.

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