Cop engaged in sex acts with teen in patrol car in MO, feds say. He gets prison
A former deputy in Missouri is headed to prison after officials accused him of engaging in sex acts with two teens.
Justin Bradley Durham pleaded guilty to production of child pornography, two counts of receiving child pornography and three counts of destroying records in a federal investigation, according to an April 7 news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Missouri.
He was sentenced to serve 65 years in prison.
McClatchy News reached out to Durham’s attorney for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Durham, a former deputy at the Phelps County Sheriff’s Office, requested a sexually explicit video from a 15-year-old girl in 2013, officials said. Later, he “engaged in sex acts” with the girl and gave her $200, according to the release.
In 2016, Durham met a 17-year-old girl while responding to a call. Officials said he engaged in sex acts with the girl multiple times, including in his patrol vehicle.
He also exchanged sexually explicit images and videos with the girl, officials said.
In 2023, investigators linked Durham’s PayPal account to another account “associated with the sale of” child pornography, prosecutors said.
When authorities interviewed him, Durham initially denied buying child porn and said it had been years since he accessed his Dropbox account, according to officials.
After refusing to allow authorities to search his phone, Durham bought another phone two days later and destroyed his old one, while also deleting about 37 gigabytes of data in his Dropbox account, prosecutors said.
“Among those files were hundreds of sexually explicit images and videos, including files containing child sexual abuse material,” officials said.
Durham was fired from the sheriff’s office on Aug. 9, 2023, then arrested.
He later told authorities that he also destroyed a laptop, threw away his phone and did a “digital footprint scrub” of his online accounts, the release said.
Prosecutors said Durham also targeted women in jail and on parole.
“Justin Durham avoided detection by exploiting what he knew about law enforcement. He often targeted vulnerable victims, some of whom suffered from mental health issues, poverty, or sexual abuse,” said Special Agent in Charge Ashley Johnson of the FBI St. Louis Division.
Phelps County is about a 230-mile drive southeast of Kansas City.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 4:49 PM with the headline "Cop engaged in sex acts with teen in patrol car in MO, feds say. He gets prison."
