Man faces child porn charges

Probable cause statement: Confiscated media card had over 300 videos of children engaged in sexual acts

SIKESTON -- A Sikeston man faces multiple child pornography charges after his cell phone and other photo memory devices were turned into local law enforcement early this week.

Edward Lee Freeland Jr., 34, of Sikeston was formally charged Wednesday by Scott County Prosecuting Attorney Paul Boyd with 10 felony counts of possession of child pornography.

According to the probable cause statement provided by the Scott County prosecuting attorney's office, Det. John A. Blakely of Sikeston Department of Public Safety said at 12:42 a.m. an officer met with an individual in the lobby of Sikeston DPS headquarters who said he had items that he believed contained child pornography. Taken from the individual was a cell phone, several micro SD cards, some bigger SD cards and two computer flash drives, Blakely said. According to the DPS report, the individual was buying a phone from one of Freeland's family members because she was needing money to help take care of her child. Freeland had been arrested on or about Jan. 27 for a felony warrant of child support out of Stoddard County. Blakely said he took possession of the items from the DPS officer after he was done speaking with the person who brought the items to the police station.

On Tuesday Blakely said he interviewed Freeland's family member in reference to what she may have seen on the cell phone. The family member said she only knew about what was on the cell phone because the person brought it back, claiming it had disturbing videos on it related to children having sex, according to the probable cause. Blakely said the family member said she had a tablet and iPod Freeland used and that she looked at the iPod and located images of children ages 4 to 6 engaged in sexual acts. She said she wasn't sure what to do so she reset the item back to factory settings, said Blakely, who collected these items as evidence.

Next Blakely said he spoke to the individual who first brought the items to DPS, and that person explained he observed three small clips from the micro card he took out of Freeland's phone and saw what he believed to be hundreds of videos involving children ages 5 to 12 or 13 engaged in sexual acts, ranging from performing oral sex on an adult male to an adult male having sexual intercourse with a child he estimated to be between the ages of 5 to 7. The individual also said one of the other clips he looked at was an adult female performing oral sex on a 5- to 7-year-old female.

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