Joplin man, sentenced for child pornography in 2015, may have probation revoked

The probation of a Joplin man who served time in federal prison for child pornography crimes may be revoked.

In a hearing scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday in U. S. District Court in Springfield, Judge David P. Rush will determine whether Frank Ness, 54, will lose his freedom for an unspecified violation. A detention hearing will also be held.

A probation revocation hearing was held for Ness in March 2023 after the judge determined he had violated conditions of his probation that required him not to receive approval from his probation officer before he possessed a computer and using a computer to go to sex sites. Ness was continued on probation with added conditions.

Ness was originally arrested July 16, 2014 following the execution of a search warrant at his home at 1421 S. Cleveland.

As a member of the Southwest Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force carried Ness' computer out of the home, Ness' wife gave the officer the thumbs up.

"You got him," she said. "Everything you're looking for is going to be on that computer."

The search warrant was executed following a tip to the task force that child pornography was being sent to a computer with an IP address that was being used at that house

Mrs. Ness told officers her husband's computer was password-protected, but he has left it on a couple of times and that "she had seen child pornography on that computer," according to an affidavit filed in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri.

Ness' wife said she had argued with her husband about it and had thrown on the computer on the floor and thought she had broken it. "She said Ness told her he had thrown the computer away."

Her discovery of her husband using his computer for unsavory purposes was not the first time she had caught him in the act. 

"She said she first caught him looking at child pornography shortly after they married, about eight years ago. She said she had caught him looking at it, but he had promised that he would quit looking at it," according to the probable cause affidavit.

Not quite trusting her husband, Mrs. Ness said "she would never allow her grandchildren to be alone with her husband since she had seen the pictures on his computer and didn't trust that he would never molest them."

Task Force officers found 124 videos containing child pornography on Ness' computer, according to the affidavit. All were hidden in a folder.