Neosho firefighter and former Seneca R-7 resource officer pleads guilty to child pornography charge

A  Neosho firefighter who formerly worked as a resource officer for the Seneca R-7 School District waived the reading of his indictment on a child pornography charge and pleaded guilty.

During a hearing held in U. S. District Court in Springfield, Jeremiah Scott Clogston, 44, Seneca, admitted he received child pornography between the dates of July 10, 2020, and July 26, 2021.

The Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force was alerted to Clogston's activities through a tip from Yahoo officials saying they had discovered possible child pornography in Clogston's account and noted that it appeared Clogston "had access to children."

As a search warrant was being executed at Clogston's home, Task Force officers interviewed him at the Neosho Fire Department, according to the plea agreement.

Clogston was asked if he had any idea why officers were investigating him. Clogston said it probably had something to do with his Yahoo e-mail address that he could no longer use. He advised that he had seen some child pornography when surfing the internet, especially the social media website Tumblr.

Clogston claimed he wanted to report the child pornography so he saved it so he could turn it over to law enforcement.

Clogston described the act that was shown on the video, which involved a grown man and an underage girl and the description matched what the officers had received from Yahoo.

Clogston stated that there were no more than three or four child pornography videos on his phone. He claimed he intended to report the files to (Seneca Police) Chief (James) Altic, but admitted he did not report them.

Clogston claimed to have been looking at child pornography for several years but never specifically qualified how long he had been looking at it. Clogston reported that he did have a sexual interest in children and an addiction to pornography.

A forensic review of Clogston's iPhone revealed 81 images and three videos "that depicted minors in sexually explicit conduct, that is, child pornography."

No date has been set for Clogston's sentencing.