Facebook posts lead to Dexter man's arrest

A 23-year-old Dexter, Missouri, man was in court Thursday morning after being charged with promoting child pornography for allegedly posting illicit photos of an underage ex-girlfriend on Facebook.

Because Joseph Frye was not represented at his arraignment and did not qualify for a public defender, he was scheduled to hire a lawyer and reappear June 19.

He was charged after an investigation that began in late April, when the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office was asked to contact a school counselor about a student having "inappropriate" photos posted on Facebook.

The student, 17 years old at the time, who under Missouri State law could 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 several posts were made to the account under the student's name April 11, 12 and 14. On April 16, 10 more photos were added to the account, again under the student's name. While some of the pictures were not out of the ordinary, police stated in a probable-cause affidavit that others were of a sexual nature.

The last post to the account was April 24. The next day, the young woman told police she had broken up with Frye in September, but before that, Frye had been given nude photos of her and later had uploaded them to Facebook. She admitted 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 said she had contacted Frye repeatedly, asking him to remove the pictures and he refused.

The alleged victim told police Frye had set up a phony Facebook account once before, but took it down when told she would contact authorities if he did not. She also told police Frye had admitted to a friend of hers 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.

During an interview at the Stoddard County Sheriff's Office, Frye said he dated the girl for about four or five months and said he last spoke with her in December. Frye denied knowledge of the Facebook account.

After being informed by police they had subpoenaed records to identify the IP address from which the fake Facebook posts originated, Frye said when he and the girl first set up their Facebook accounts, they did so at his home.

Frye at first denied he had asked the alleged victim to send him nude pictures. Asked again whether he asked the girl to send him nude photos via a text message, he admitted he had. Frye told police 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 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 says.

Frye was arrested and charged with promoting child pornography in the second degree, a felony that could carry up to seven years in jail.