Darrin M Skinner mugshot

CAMDEN COUNTY, Mo. — A former school resource officer at a Lake of the Ozarks area school was sentenced in federal court this week after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography.

Darrin Marshall Skinner, 52, was sentenced before District Judge Stephen R. Bough in the Western District of Missouri U.S. court, for one count of receipt of Child Sexual Abuse Material. He was arrested and charged in late-2023.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Skinner, who had worked as a school resource officer in Macks Creek and was at the time employed by the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, traded child sexual abuse material with other individuals using MeWe, a privacy-focused social media app.

A National Center for Missing and Exploitive Children (NCMEC) Cyber Tip alerted the Camden County Sheriff’s Office of Skinner’s conduct. Due to a conflict of interest, the Camden County Sheriff’s office requested the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigate.

Skinner was sentenced to nine years imprisonment followed by 10 years of supervised release, and he will be required to register as sex offender following his release.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley S. Turner. It was investigated by the Missouri State Highway Patrol, The Camden County Prosecutor’s Office, and the Camden County Sheriff’s Office.

Background/Prior Coverage

Authorities say Skinner's case spanned three years, starting with a CyberTip from the social network MeWe in 2020 before landing in the Camden County Sheriff's Office in June.

Once a detective identified Skinner as the suspect on July 26, the investigation was handed to the Missouri State Highway Patrol for conflict of interest.

An August MSHP search warrant at Skinner's house led to an interview, where Skinner allegedly confirmed the MeWe account belonged to him. Skinner also allegedly said he did receive images of child porn but deleted them immediately and never sent pictures to others. His cellphone was seized during the search as well. The Missouri Digital Forensic Center found no media files of child porn on Skinner's device, so the MSHP investigator concluded there was not enough information to request criminal charges. 

The case nearly died there.

In August, the case file was submitted to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office for review, where investigator Tracy Robinett took the helm.  

"I certainly credit him with picking up the ball and running with it after we got the referral that [the Patrol was] closing the investigation," Grosvenor said. "He is an excellent investigator with training and experience specific to kid cases."

From the time Skinner was definitively determined to be a suspect on July 26, until his termination on Aug. 22, he remained on the Camden County Sheriff's Office payroll, though he was on administrative leave beginning on Aug. 1. The Sheriff's Office fired Skinner one day before the Macks Creek school year started, where he had worked as a resource officer.

Grosvenor told LakeExpo that when the prosecutor's office received the case file, there were unanswered questions.

"When it came into our office, we needed to make sure that we uncovered every stone," Grosvenor said. "The prosecutor and the investigator just simply decided that they were going to continue the investigation until it made sense."

During the review, Robinett noticed an absence of data in MeWe's original search warrant response, so he followed up with the social network and obtained the full account data in December.

"It was important to us when we got the information that we moved on it as quickly as possible," Grosvenor added.

The missing data obtained by Robinett led to reportedly critical evidence for the case. In the MeWe user chat allegedly connected to Skinner's account, MSHP investigator John Pehle observed 18 images that met the definition of child porn. Skinner had allegedly sent 15 of the pictures to other users.

"I want the public to know that the prosecutor's office really cares about these kind of cases, not just from people who are in authority, but anybody who is deciding to have any sort of violence against children," Grosvenor said. "People claim this is a victimless crime, and it's complete nonsense. We take it really seriously."

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