Charges describe hidden cameras used to photograph teen girl at central Arkansas home

Benton man facing 2 counts

A Benton man was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury in Little Rock on charges that he installed a hidden camera in a bathroom of his home and took nude photographs of a 15-year-old girl.

The grand jury charged Matthew McCoy with two counts of production of child pornography in connection with nude images of the girl that a detective found on flash drives at McCoy's house, according to a criminal complaint filed Jan. 10. The indictment says the photos of the girl were taken on or about Oct. 15, 2017.

But other people in the home, including McCoy's wife, were also surreptitiously photographed or videotaped by hidden cameras, according to an FBI agent's affidavit attached to the complaint. It says that a Benton police detective, Dustin Derrick, also found nude images on a confiscated flash drive of an elderly woman who turned out to be a customer of McCoy's father, who owns a company that installs home security cameras.

The father, Hershel McCoy, told officers that his son worked for him part time, according to the affidavit. It said that upon being shown a still image taken inside the elderly woman's home, the elder McCoy verified that it was the home of an elderly customer for whom his company had installed security cameras. He said the image could only have been accessed by logging into the camera system remotely, according to FBI Agent Daniel J. Turner, a member of the agency's Child Exploitation Task Force.

The federal charges cover only the clandestine images of the girl. It couldn't be determined Wednesday whether Matthew McCoy is facing other charges stemming from photographs or videos taken of other people in the home or of the elderly woman.

Turner's affidavit said that on Dec. 7, 2018, McCoy's wife contacted Benton police after obtaining a protection order against her husband from the Saline County sheriff's office. The woman reported that McCoy had pointed a gun, wrapped in a towel, at her on Dec. 2 while she was in her garage holding her 1-year-old son. She told police that she feared for her life and asked her husband whether the gun was loaded, prompting him to laugh and reply that he didn't even know how to use it.

Then on Dec. 10, McCoy's wife met with Benton police again to report finding a camera hidden in a vent directly over the toilet in her guest bathroom.

The affidavit says that the woman noticed that the bathroom vent wasn't working properly and asked her brother-in-law to see if he could fix it. The man removed the vent cover, finding the hidden camera, and then he, McCoy's wife and her sister searched the home for additional hidden cameras, the affidavit said. It said the three couldn't find any other cameras, but did find "numerous flash drives amongst McCoy's belongings."

In reviewing the flash drives, Derrick, the Benton detective, found nude images of the girl, the elderly woman and others, according to the affidavit. The FBI agent said videos of the 15-year-old girl were taken while she was in the master bathroom of McCoy's home, probably in October of 2017. One showed her using the bathroom and then standing nude in front of a mirror, while a second video shows her getting out of the shower and drying herself.

In a subsequent search of the house, Derrick found areas where McCoy had previously installed hidden cameras, in at least some cases using speaker boxes that had been fitted to hold a camera. McCoy's wife told police that there had once been speakers in the living room and in the master bathroom.

The detective also found a work station in the garage, and said McCoy's wife told him that her husband spent "a good deal of time working in the garage with electronic equipment."

Hershel McCoy was interviewed Jan. 7 and confirmed that a still image found on one of the flash drives was taken inside the home of an elderly client of his.

Court documents show that Matthew McCoy was arrested Jan. 11 on a warrant. He was released Jan. 16 into the custody of a man living in New Edinburg, in Cleveland County, with orders to have no contact with the girl or his wife or any of his wife's family members. A magistrate judge also ordered him to surrender his smart phone and have no access to the Internet.

He is scheduled for plea and arraignment at 10 a.m. Feb. 19 before U.S. Magistrate Judge Beth Deere in Little Rock.

Metro on 02/07/2019

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