North Platte officer who investigated internet crimes against children charged with possession of child sex abuse materials

A North Platte police officer who previously investigated internet crimes against children as part of a Homeland Security task force now faces federal charges of possessing child sex abuse materials.

In a criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday, investigators with the FBI detailed the charges against John Deal, who worked at the North Platte Police Department for 21 years. Deal was arrested on Monday and made his first court appearance on Tuesday. During a lengthy detention hearing, he was ordered to remain behind bars as the case progresses.

Deal is charged in the complaint with possession and receipt of child sex abuse materials, or CSAM. A criminal complaint is typically a precursor to a formal indictment.

According to the complaint, CSAM had allegedly been downloaded to Deal’s personal devices “as early as 2011.” He began investigating online child exploitation crimes as a task force officer with Homeland Security Investigations in 2022. That included investigating “CyberTips” generated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMEC.

Deal came to the attention of investigators last year as the result of a CyberTip, according to the complaint. The parent company of CashApp notified NCMEC of a Bitcoin transaction made from Deal’s account to a wallet known to sell CSAM, according to the complaint.

A search warrant was executed at Deal’s home on Aug. 4, where investigators seized a computer tower, tablet and cell phone. He was interviewed during the execution of the warrant, and said he sometimes accessed websites on TOR, a dark web browser, at work “as part of his employment,” but said he was not an “active user.”

On Deal’s phone and tablet, according to the complaint, investigators found a history of accessing at least 48 TOR addresses containing CSAM, and 13 additional sites that had been shut down at the request of NCMEC.

The evidence from the desktop computer is still being reviewed, according to the complaint, but investigators identified 82 files, including videos, of children being sexually abused. The videos described in the complaint depicted children estimated to be between 7 and 12 years old.

North Platte Police Chief Steve Reeves was interviewed as part of the investigation, according to the complaint, and said Deal “has not been tasked with working in an undercover capacity” and “should not be working child exploitation cases from his home computer or residence.”

Reached by phone Tuesday, Reeves said Deal is no longer employed by the department. Reeves said Deal was initially placed on administrative leave after the search warrant was executed on Aug. 4, at which point he had “very, very little” information about the investigation. Reeves also confirmed that Deal worked as a task force officer with Homeland Security Investigations.