The federal trial for a Greenbrier County man charged with possession of child pornography has been placed on hold pending further order of the court.
Jack Michael Smith, 34, of Alderson was scheduled to appear for a jury trial before United States Magistrate Judge Omar J. Aboulhosn at the federal courthouse in Beckley on Tuesday, August 17, regarding charges that he took sexually explicit photos of a female approximately 11-13 years old and uploaded them to the social media site Tumblr.
The incident allegedly occurred on Oct. 19, 2019.
According to a search warrant application issued on Oct. 13, 2020, officials with Tumblr reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that 11 images of a nude, pubescent female were uploaded to a Tumblr chat by a person using the user name “reapersmith” and the email address jmikesmith2000@gmail.com. The site was also able to capture the IP address of the user.
In the Tumblr chat, the user “reapersmith” states that he had been having a sexual relationship with the girl and began molesting her when she was three years old.
During the initial investigation, it was discovered that Smith allegedly uploaded another image of a female who was approximately 7-10 years old to Kik messenger on March 19, 2019, from a Ronceverte address. This image depicted the nude female leaning against a bathtub wearing handcuffs and ankle bracelets, the warrant application states.
Through surveillance work, it was discovered that Smith had applied for a martial arts studio on Oct. 7, 2020 using the email address jmikesmith2000@gmail.com.
After the search warrant was granted, evidence was seized from Smith’s home on Sunset Drive. He was taken into custody and booked at Southern Regional Jail on Oct. 16, 2020. Kimberly Crookshanks, who resided with Smith, was also taken into custody and charged after evidence of child pornographic images were found on her cell phone.
Crookshanks was relocated to the state of Oregon where she is currently in jail awaiting a three day jury trial scheduled for Sept. 28 at the Portland Courtroom 16 before Judge Michael W. Mosman, according to information provided by the district of Oregon criminal court docket sheet.
Smith is currently at Southern Regional Jail. No bond has been set.
Officers with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) out of Oregon, DHS officers from Charleston and those with the Alderson Police Department aided each other during the investigation.
The West Virginia Daily News will continue to provide updates on this case as they become available.
