Former PB church official faces porn charge

BENTON — A former worship leader at a Poplar Bluff church faces a child pornography charge in Scott County after sexually-explicit videos of young girls were found on his cellphone.

Zachary Lee Moore, 24, of Sikeston is free on bond after being charged with the Class B felony of first-degree promoting child pornography.

The compliant filed with the court alleges on Jan. 24, Moore, “knowing its content and character, distributed child pornography consisting of videos that portray females under the age of 14 years as participants in sexual conduct.”

Moore is to appear at 9 a.m. Oct. 13 for a review of his case before Associate Circuit Judge Robert Horack.

The charge against Moore stems from an investigation by Poplar Bluff Police Detective Danny Hicks, who is commander of the SEMO Cyber Crimes Task Force.

On March 31, Hicks received a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children through the Missouri Internet Crimes Against Children state office in St. Charles.

Hicks, according to his probable-cause statement, received information the user of an instant messaging app had sent seven videos to another user on Jan. 24.

“The videos sent using the Kik application were all viewed and confirmed to be of child pornography,” Hicks said. “The videos displayed prepubescent females posing nude and performing in sexual acts either with other juveniles or with adults.”

Hicks said he was provided with such information as the user’s email address, screen/user name and internet protocol (IP) address. The IP address, he said, appeared to be a wireless account.

The information, Hicks said, was tracked to Moore, who was contacted June 22 by police Detective Joey Woodruff.

After being told of his rights, “Moore denied any knowledge of child pornography being sent from his phone,” Hicks said. “Moore stated his phone was stolen in January 2020 by a co-worker” at the Sikeston plant where he worked, but later returned by his co-worker.

Moore, Hicks said, alleged his co-worker used the Kik app to send “videos that he did not know the content of.”

Hicks said Moore reported the Google email account associated with the alleged child pornography had not been created by him.

Moore reportedly agreed to a forensic examination of his cellphone.

“While parsing the results from the forensic examination, I found Zachary Moore sent and received several iMessages with his wife … on the date of the reported incident,” Jan. 24, said Hicks, who also interviewed Moore.

Hicks said Moore reiterated that a co-worker had stolen his phone, and he received it back the next day.

“When he got the phone back, his wife found that her nude photographs and other pornography had been sent from Moore’s Snapchat account,” Hicks said. “Moore explained he believes the person that stole his phone sent the images of child pornography on his device; however, the content didn’t send until he arrived home with his phone and it connected to his WiFi.”

Moore, according to Hicks, denied having the Google email associated with the alleged child pornography or ever having a Kik account.

When confronted with the fact the Kik account had been “established prior to the date of the occurrence using his WiFi network at his residence,” Hicks said, Moore had no other explanation.

On Aug. 13, Hicks said, he contacted the co-worker Moore identified as having stolen his cellphone.

The man, he said, confirmed he used to work with Moore at the Sikeston plant; however, they did not work in the same area.

When the former co-worker was “specifically asked” whether he had taken and returned Moore’s phone, Hicks said, the man had “no idea” what the detective was talking about.

According to company officials, Hicks said, Moore worked third shift, while his co-worker was on second shift.