Federal authorities arrested a Fulton man in Fulton on June 16 on criminal charges related to his alleged production of child pornography and sextortion of minor girls in Muscatine, Iowa.
Chad Alan Craghead, age 44, who is a math teacher and long-distance track coach in the North Callaway School District, posed as a teenage boy online and obtained nude images of a 16-year-old from Muscatine, according to court documents.
After obtaining those images, he created a second false identity and demanded additional nude images of the minor, threatening to disseminate the images he already had to her friends and family if she did not comply.
Authorities said Craghead extorted the minor over the course of several months.
Then the minor's 16-year-old cousin tried to help her. As a result, Craghead extorted the cousin, threatening to disseminate her relative's nude images if she did not comply with his demands for nude images and videos, according to authorities. The cousin reportedly complied, sending Craghead sexually explicit videos of herself.
The FBI assisted the Muscatine Police Department in the investigation and, through several Snapchat accounts associated with Craghead, authorities located a number of other minor girls across the country, some as young as 13, who had either sent him nude images or from whom Craghead had extorted or attempted to extort nude images.
Craghead is charged with two counts of production of child pornography, two counts of interstate communications with intent to extort, and one count of cyberstalking.
If convicted, Craghead faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of 30 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.