Gainesville man seeks gag order in child porn, statutory rape case

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An Ozark County man, 54-year-old Tracy Todd Presson, is asking the court to order a gag order against Sheriff Darrin Reed and his law enforcement staff in connection with a case charging the Gainesville man with 10 felony counts, including statutory rape, statutory sodomy, possession of more than 20 images of child pornography, possession of videoed child pornography and use of a child in a sexual performance.

The Ozark County Times reports the motion was filed by Springfield-area defense attorney Adam Woody on Presson’s behalf. The motion is scheduled to be called before the court at Presson’s criminal setting hearing Oct. 23rd.

Presson is currently being held in the Ozark County Jail on cash-only bonds of $300,000.

The motion says Woody requests the court issue a gag order to “avoid improper prejudicial pre-trial publicity, and to avoid undue influence over potential witnesses, and to cease the ongoing tampering and meddling in the matter.”

In the motion, Woody refers to a press release he says Reed issued one day after asking for an order sealing the probable cause statement in the case to protect the victim and her family.

Woody says Reed’s press release includes information on evidence in the case, including things in the probable cause statement that are no longer public record. He also says Reed’s statement in the press release saying the case could be one of “possible trafficking of children” and his request asking the public to “say a prayer for these children” were specifically at risk of affecting the jury pool.

The motion for the gag order also asks the court to order Reed and his staff not to discuss information learned in the jail. The statement says Presson spoke to family members and his attorney over the jail phone, and “jail staff or perhaps the sheriff himself eavesdrop[ped] on those conversations.”

Woody writes “they,” assumedly the sheriff’s office staff members, have been passing along information discussed in the phone interviews with Presson’s wife, Kristie Presson, who is a potential witness in the case.

The motion also says after charges had initially been filed, a warrant was served on Presson’s residence with his wife present. During the execution of the search warrant, officers discussed the substance of the allegations with Presson’s wife at great length, “in an effort to get her to turn on her husband and cooperate with them,” according to Woody’s document.

“In doing so, they implicitly agreed to confer a benefit to Ms. Presson,” the court document says.

In support of his motion for the gag order, Wood claims Reed is violating a Missouri statute titled “tampering with a witness or victim” and lists several ways the “tampering” might occur, such as “threatens or causes harm” to anyone and “purposely prevents or dissuades … a person who is acting on behalf of” the victim.

Reed said in a press release there are thousands of images and videos still to be reviewed to identify the victims. He said his department had already tagged 8,000.

He said contact had been made with the Federal Bureau of Investigations, as there are other states involved, adding it possibly involves trafficking of children.

Presson was originally charged Oct. 3rd with one count of second-degree statutory rape and two counts of second-degree statutory sodomy, after officers reportedly interviewed a teen who said Presson had engaged in sexual acts with the juvenile.

The original probable cause statement in the case was obtained by the Times before the document was sealed. It reads a 16-year-old was interviewed by the sheriff’s office and the Missouri Division of Family Services on the evening of Oct. 2nd.

The teen reportedly told officers Presson had been engaging in sexual acts with the victim for approximately five years. The victim reportedly said the acts had occurred at Presson’s home in Gainesville, as well as in another state, and some of the acts were recorded in photo and video formats and stored on the Gainesville man’s laptop.

In an interview just before midnight. Oct. 2nd, Presson allegedly acknowledged spending the night in a motel room with the teen, but denied having sexual relations, according to court documents.

A search warrant was executed on the Presson home the following day and several items were confiscated, according to a press release from Reed.

Officers worked through the evidence and information gathered, and Presson’s case was amended from the original three felony counts to include eight felonies, and an additional case was filed in which Presson was charged with felony child pornography.

The probable cause statements in both cases have been sealed by the court at the sheriff’s and prosecutor’s request, due to the ‘horrific’ details and information included.

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