Facebook posts lead to arrest of local man

By NOREEN HYSLOP

Managing Editor

A 23-year-old Dexter man bonded out of the Stoddard County Jail this week after being charged with promoting child pornography for allegedly posting illicit photos of an underage ex-girlfriend on Facebook.

Joseph Frye was charged following an investigation by Dexter Police and the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office that began in late April when the Sheriff's Office was asked to make contact with Bloomfield School's counselor in reference to a student having "inappropriate" photos posted on a Facebook account.

The student, a 17-year-old juvenile at the time, who under Missouri State law shall not be named, denied posting the photos and told authorities that Frye, a former boyfriend, had set up the "fake" Facebook account under her name and posted the pictures, a few of which she had texted to him while they were seeing each other.

Upon further investigation, it was determined that several posts were made to the account under the student's name on April 11, 12, and 14, 2014. Additionally, on April 16, 10 more photos were added onto the account, again under the student's name. While some of the photos were not "out of the ordinary," police stated in the probably cause affidavit filed on May 9 that others were of a sexual nature.

The last post to the account was on April 24, 2014. On April 25, the juvenile student told police she had broken up with Joseph Frye in September 2013, but that prior to that date Frye had nude photos of her and had uploaded them since to Facebook. She admitted that she had taken the photos herself and had provided them to Frye. The girl told police she had found out about the posts through friends at school. She stated that she had contacted Frye repeatedly, asking him to remove the pictures, and that he refused.

The alleged victim told police that Frye had set up a phony Facebook account once before, but did take it down when told she would contact authorities if he did not. She also told police that Frye had admitted to a friend of hers that he had set up the Facebook account because he had been hurt in the relationship. That friend was later questioned by police and confirmed that story.

On April 25, 2014, Joseph Frye was interviewed at the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office in reference to the Facebook account. Frye said he dated the alleged victim for about four or five months and said he last spoke with her in December 2013. Frye denied any knowledge of the Facebook account. After being informed by police that they had subpoenaed records to identify the IP address from which the fake Facebook posts originated, Frye said that when he and the juvenile first set up their Facebook accounts, they did so at his home (which would have justified his IP address as the originator).

Frye at first denied to police during his interview that he had ever asked the alleged victim to send him nude pictures. Asked again if he ever asked the female to send him nude photos via a text message, he admitted that he had. Frye then told police that the alleged victim had found pornographic pictures on his phone while they were dating and told him she would send him pictures of herself so that he "wouldn't have to look at random people."

"Throughout the interview, Joseph denied creating the fake Facebook account or uploading the pictures to the account," the affidavit reads.

Frye was placed under arrest, charged with the Class C felony of promoting pornography in the second degree. He appeared in court Thursday morning, May 29 to be arraigned, but was without representation. Since he did not qualify for a public defender, he was scheduled to hire counsel and reappear on Thursday, June 19.