The arrest of a western Wisconsin school district superintendent on federal sex trafficking and child pornography charges is connected to an arrest of a North Carolina man accused of similar crimes.
Both men are accused of trafficking the same underage girl from Wisconsin, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Wisconsin.
Altoona School District Superintendent Daniel Peggs, 32, was arrested Thursday. An unsealed federal grand jury indictment accuses Peggs of sex trafficking an underage girl between October 2015 and May 2016. Peggs was also charged with using an iPhone to produce a video of the girl engaged in “sexually explicit conduct.”
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A press release from Thursday noted the victim was from Wisconsin but wasn’t a student from the Altoona district, just outside Eau Claire.
Also, on Thursday, Bryan Lee Ragon was arrested in Charlotte, North Carolina, for similar charges involving the same underage girl. An unsealed indictment alleges in December 2015 Ragon “recruited, harbored and solicited the victim” knowing she would “be caused to engage in a commercial sex act.”
The indictment also alleges Ragon produced and received child pornography, and trafficked the girl in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
Neither indictment discloses if or how Ragon and Peggs know each other or how they came into contact with the same child.
Peggs pleaded not guilty Thursday to the charges filed against him. His next hearing is Monday.
Ragon’s next court hearing is Tuesday.
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