Pocatello woman charged with production of child porn
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POCATELLO — A woman police say took photos of a nude 8-year-old girl faces several charges.
Deanna Davis, 30, has been charged with three counts of producing child pornography and one count of sexual exploitation of a child over the internet, court records show.
April 19, 2022
The Pocatello Police Department received a referral from the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The referral was regarding the reported existence of nude images of an 8-year-old girl on a phone belonging to Davis. The images were reported by a family member of the child shown in the images, the affidavit says.
At the time the report was received, Davis was being held at the Power County Jail on a misdemeanor indecent exposure charge. She received a sentence of 10 days time served after pleading guilty to the charge.
Officers spoke with the family member who reported finding the images. In addition to the images, the family member reported learning the child had been present while Davis performed sex acts with another adult.
April 20, 2022
Officers spoke with relatives of Davis, who reported Davis had displayed “strange behavior” since January 2022, when she was released from a previous prison sentence.
The family member provided officers with Davis’ phone, which matched the description of the phone provided by the victim’s family member and was not password protected.
Davis’ family member told officer they had also found images matching those described by the victim’s family member — showing the child nude and in different “sexually suggestive” positions.
Davis’ family told officers the phone also contained images of what they believed to be a young boy’s genitalia. The family members were concerned Davis was sending the images to others in exchange for money “or some other commodity.”
The family member also gave officers stick figure drawings done by Davis that they feared depicted Davis engaged in “something inappropriate.” One of the stick figures in the drawings were labeled as being the child victim of whom Davis had nude images stored on her phone. Another image in the stick-figure drawing was a person who appeared to be holding an alcohol bottle and money.
Officers seized the phone for forensic examination.
April 26, 2022
During their examination of the cell phone, forensic examiners were able to confirm the phone belonged to Davis.
Officers extracted from the phone several “image(s) of concern.” Each showed a child in various states of dress posed in suggestive positions — some showed a girl, others showed what officers believe to be a boy.
Police reports do not indicate if officers were able to identify the boy.
April 27, 2022
With officers present and watching from another room, the victim was interviewed at a child advocacy center.
During the interview, the girl told the child advocate she knew she was there to discuss the “bad things” that “happened in the past,” according to the affidavit. The girl described the images that had been taken of her.
Feb. 1, 2023
Officers sent a copy of the information extracted from Davis’ phone to the Idaho Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force.
“The purpose of sending the phone extraction was to make sure the images on the phone had not been shared,” the affidavit says.
An ICAC investigator confirmed they could find no evidence the information was ever shared.
A warrant for Davis’ arrest was issued in March 2023 and served on Feb. 14, 2024. She was arrested and taken to Bannock County Jail, where she is being held on a $100,000 bond.
After she signed a waiver of preliminary hearing, the charges against Davis were bound over to District Court.
Though Davis has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If she is found guilty, Davis would face up to 100 years in prison.
She is scheduled to appear in court March 25 for an arraignment hearing before District Judge Javier Gabiola.