Ex-deputy faces federal sex charges

Clark County investigation gives way to federal child pornography probe.

A 12-year veteran of the Clark County Sheriff’s Office faces federal and local charges related to producing child pornography and sex with a minor.

The investigation into Deputy Dustin William Hensley, 30, began with a federal probe into child pornography on the Internet, Clark County Prosecutor Andy Wilson said Wednesday.

Hensley’s Moorefield Twp. home was searched last week by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a joint operation with Clark County sheriff’s deputies, Wilson said.

Police would not say what they found in the home.

Hensley was to appear in federal court in Dayton on Wednesday afternoon to face a single count of producing child pornography, Wilson said. A temporary break down of the federal building’s air conditioning delayed his appearance, and of late Wednesday, a federal clerk said his hearing had not been rescheduled.

Wilson said the county turned Hensley over to federal custody and would hold off on pursuing state third-degree felony charges of one count of sexual battery and one count of unlawful sex with a minor until federal court action.

“We’ll let the federal system proceed and coordinate with them state charges,” Wilson said.

On each state charge alone, Hensley could receive five years in prison. The youth involved in the pornography was a local male under the age of 16, Wilson said.

Hensley was arrested Tuesday at about 5:35 p.m. at his Dayton attorney’s office on West Second Street, and booked into the Clark County jail at 7:29 p.m. Hensley resigned Tuesday.

Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said Hensley began with the sheriff’s office in July 2001 as a dispatcher and became a uniformed patrol officer in 2005 after working for a time in the jail.

Hensley’s only recent disciplinary incident as an employee was when he attempted to pursue a suspect in a theft and lost control of his cruiser, hitting a guard rail. Nothing in Hensley’s record as a law enforcement officer has any parallel to the charges he faces now, Kelly said.

Kelly asked that anyone who has additional information about the case to contact authorities. He said the investigation and legal action shows that his office will not place officers of the law above the law.

“We don’t care if you wear a badge or carry a gun,” he said. “We’ll work with any agency to be sure there is public trust.”

Hensley, he said, “is innocent until proven guilty.”

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