Former Phelps County Sheriff’s deputy Justin Bradley Durham, 43, from Rolla, has pleaded guilty to charges related to child pornography and obstruction, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. In his plea, Durham admitted to engaging in sex acts with a minor and requesting and receiving child pornography. The case was presented in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, where Durham accepted responsibility for one count of production of child pornography, two counts of receiving child pornography, and three counts of destroying records in a federal investigation, according to the United States Attorney’s Office.
The sordid details of the plea reveal that in 2013, Durham received a sexually explicit video from a 16-year-old, subsequently paying her $200 after she performed sex acts with him. Durham also admitted to multiple sex acts with a 17-year-old victim, including encounters in his patrol vehicle, and exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with her. As reported by the United States Attorney’s Office he met the second victim in 2016 after responding to a police call from her friend.
The FBI's investigation began after discovering that Durham's PayPal account had been used to send money to another account associated with the sale of child pornography. Durham initially denied the purchases and claimed not to have used his Dropbox account for years. However, following an interview in 2023, where he refused to let agents search his cell phone, Durham proceeded to quickly buy a new phone, destroy his old one, and delete approximately 37 gigabytes of data in his Dropbox account. This data included hundreds of sexually explicit images and videos involving children, as mentioned by the United States Attorney’s Office.
After being fired from the Sheriff’s Department on August 9, 2023, Justin Bradley Durham tried to cover his actions. While in jail, he told FBI agents that he destroyed a laptop and discarded his phone to "digital footprint scrub." Durham is awaiting sentencing on February 5, 2025, and faces a minimum of 15 years for producing child pornography and five years for receiving it. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kyle Bateman is handling the prosecution, which is part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, as stated by the United States Attorney’s Office.
