Cassville Man Facing Federal Child Porn Charges, Authorities Say Infant Abused:

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Matthew Paul Casas

A man from Cassville was charged in federal court Monday (03-03-14) with receiving and distributing child pornography after he allegedly left inappropriate images on a "smart" television he had rented.

Barry County Deputy Brian Martin, who is a member of Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, says in court papers that a Monett police detective contacted him last December after a rental store customer notified them that a customer who had recently rented the television found hundreds of images of an adult male performing sexual acts on a baby girl between 12 to 18 months-old.

"The set had been rented two times prior to this placement," court documents state.

Martin says he was "familiar" with Matthew Paul Casas, 25, one of the previous renters.

"I reviewed the images and noted them to have been created by a Kodak Easy Share camera."  Martin says the majority of the pornographic images found on the television were "homemade" and not pulled off the Internet.  

On February 14, 2014, officers received three cybertips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a person was posting images of child pornography to online social media accounts. All of the images depicted children, from infancy to 10 years old, engaged in sexual poses or involved in sexual acts with an adult or each other. 

On February 21, 2014, Martin received another tip from the NCMEC about a Flickr account that had been closed after 130 images of child pornography was posted there.   "Several of the images from the TV were identical, or depicted other sex acts between the infant and adult male, with the images posted online." 

An IP address led officers to 501 West 11th Street. Cops say that is where Matthew Casas lived  with his father, who is a registered sex offender.

When a search warrant was executed on February 28th, Matthew Casas allegedly told investigators that a co-worker had given him the child pornography that he posted on at least three Facebook accounts and the Flickr account.

"Casas did admit there were thousands of images on the SD card, as well as hundreds of child pornographic movies."

Casas' estranged wife told detectives that part of the reason she left her husband was her discovery of child porn on his phone--which he told her he was selling.  "She also advised that just before leaving him, when they were involved in sexual activity, she believed he was watching his daughter (court docs say later she is not his biological daughter) in a crib and he became more aroused by watching the child than her."  She told investigators that she is afraid of Casas because he had been violent with her in the past and  he has "threatened to harm her and other family members since she won't let him see her daughter." 

Martin says they have not yet identified the baby being abused in the pictures taken with a Kodak Easy Share camera, but that the twenty five year-old man was in possession of the same make camera.  "There is great concern that Casas could be the male depicted sexually abusing the child." 

Casas has been convicted of four misdemeanor assaults and endangering the welfare of a child in the last five years.