Former Sheriff’s Deputy Admits Sex with Minor, Child Pornography Charges

ST. LOUIS – A former Phelps County Sheriff’s deputy on Thursday admitted engaging in sex acts with a minor, requesting and receiving child pornography and destroying evidence to impede the FBI.

Justin Bradley Durham, 43, of Rolla, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to one count of production of child pornography, two counts of receiving child pornography and three counts of destroying records in a federal investigation.

Durham admitted as part of his plea that he requested and received a sexually explicit video from a 16-year-old in 2013. He later provided $200 to the victim after she engaged in sex acts with him. He also admitted engaging in sex acts multiple times with a 17-year-old victim, including in his patrol vehicle. He exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with her. Durham met the second victim in 2016 when her friend contacted the police and he responded to the call.

The FBI interviewed Durham in 2023 after learning that his PayPal account had been used to send money to another account associated with the sale of child pornography. Durham denied purchasing child pornography and claimed that he hadn’t accessed his Dropbox account for years. He refused agents’ request to search his cell phone. Two days later, Durham bought a new phone, destroyed his old phone and deleted about 37 gigabytes of data in his Dropbox account before deactivating it. Among those files were hundreds of sexually explicit images and videos, including files containing child sexual abuse material. Durham was terminated by the Sheriff’s Department on Aug. 9, 2023, and arrested by them. In jail, he told FBI agents that he also destroyed a laptop computer, threw away his phone and conducted a “digital footprint scrub” of his online accounts, his plea agreement says.

Durham is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 5, 2025. The production of child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and the receipt of child pornography charge has a five-year mandatory minimum.

The FBI and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.