Monday, January 11, 2010

Correctional Deputy Steven Crews Charged with Sexual Battery on Child

Bradford County authorities on Sunday arrested a Baker County correctional deputy on allegations that he had sexually abused a girl. Investigators said the abuse might have started when the girl was about 10 years old and continued for as long as six years.

Steven Kyle Crews, 35, was charged with sexual battery on a child age 12 or younger and possession of a photograph or recording of a sex performance by a child. Crews was being held at the Bradford County Jail late Monday awaiting his first court appearance. Baker County Sheriff Joey Dobson on Monday morning fired Crews from his job at the Baker County Jail.

Bradford County Sheriff's Maj. Brad Smith said the case against Crews began Sunday when someone related to him and to the girl through marriages delivered a DVD to the Sheriff's Office. Smith said the DVD contained images of the child performing a sex act. The person who delivered the DVD helped identify Crews as the person who made it, probably a few years earlier, the Bradford County Sheriff's Office reported.

Deputies picked up Crews at his home, found other pornographic material there and took him to the Sheriff's Office in Starke, where he was questioned.

"He gave several admissions to performing various sexual acts with the juvenile," Smith said. "He also divulged information that some incidents may have occurred in Baker County, where he used to live, and in Virginia, so we anticipate that there may be additional charges."

Investigators also are trying to determine whether Crews might have been involved with other children. Concerns were raised that there might have been other victims because investigators were not able to determine if the child pornography alleged to have been in his possession was produced using children he knew or if he downloaded it from the Internet.

"He told us he knew what he was doing was wrong and that he considered suicide but that he never took any action in that regard," Smith said.

During a joint Baker County and Bradford County sheriff's news conference Monday afternoon, Dobson said Crews had begun working for his agency in May.

According to Florida Department of Corrections records, Crews resigned as a sergeant at New River Correctional Institution a few days before taking the similar job at the Baker County Jail.

He also previously had worked at Baker Correctional Institution.

The victim is with family members and has left the area, officials said.

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