A Missouri man was arrested last week on federal charges related to his alleged production of child pornography and sextortion of minor females in Muscatine.
According to court documents, Chad Alan Craghead, 44, of Fulton, Missouri, who is a teacher and coach, posed as a teenage boy online and obtained nude images a sixteen-year-old from Muscatine.
After obtaining those images, he created a second false identity and demanded additional nude images of the teen, threatening to disseminate the nude images he already had to her friends and family if she did not comply. Craghead extorted the girl over the course of several months.
A sixteen-year-old cousin tried to help her. As a result, Craghead extorted the other girl, threatening to disseminate the nude images if the cousin did not comply with his demands for nude images and videos. She also complied, sending Craghead sexually explicit videos of herself.
The FBI assisted the Muscatine Police Department in the investigation and, through several Snapchat accounts associated with Craghead, located a number of other minor females across the country, some as young as 13 years old, who either sent him nude images or from whom Craghead extorted or attempted to extort nude images.
Craghead is charged with two counts of Production of Child Pornography, two counts of Interstate Communications with Intent to Extort, and one count of Cyberstalking.
If convicted, Craghead faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison.
A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the case.