Mt. Vernon man facing child porn charge

MT. VERNON, Ill. (KBSI) – A Mt. Vernon man faces a child pornography charge after he turned himself in to the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.

Griffin D. McDonald, 35, turned himself in to deputies at the sheriff’s office on August 9 due to an arrest warrant for him charging child pornography.

He was jailed to await his appearance at a pre-trial detention hearing.

The arrest warrant was a result of a sheriff’s office investigation, as a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which received information on July 19 from a local business that a laptop computer they were working on contained suspected images of child pornography.

JCSO detectives began the investigation and developed McDonald as a suspect.

That led to a search warrant of his home in Mt. Vernon on July 23.

The search warrant resulted in electronic evidence being collected and forensically analyzed.

After the investigation was completed, the report was forwarded to the states attorney’s office seeking felony charges, which were issued.