Prosecutor troubled by child porn cases

VIGO CO. Ind. (WTHI) - James Haley Jr. and Tyler Wilkinson share a bond that makes most people shudder.  They're both being held on charges of possessing child pornography.

"Number one, it's against the law, but I just think it's really heinous and we've got to protect our children," Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt said.

Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt had a hand in getting both of their charges filed. At this point he doesn't believe the two are related.
     
Haley Jr. is a Vigo County Sheriff's deputy. Police found more than 40 thousand files on his computer. All of them involved child pornography.
     
Meanwhile, Wilkinson is a 19 year old.
     
He's accused of taking nude cell phone pictures of a 14 year old girl, then threatening to send it to others. Police believe he raped that girl in a vehicle.

At first, his charges were rape and child molestation, but recently child pornography was added.

"I can say that additional charges were filed because there was an ongoing investigation and additional things were discovered as the investigation continued."

Modesitt said these cases are a bad sign of possibly a growing trend, but he wants to make his feelings on the subject easy to understand.

"It's twisted. it's against the law, it's sick, and we're going to take it very seriously. We're going to charge it as strenuously as we can in each case and we're going to do everything we can to put a stop to it," Modesitt said.