47-year-old Lincoln County man charged with 3 counts of child pornography
Trent Abrego, Sioux Falls Argus Leader
Thu, January 26, 2023 at 2:52 PM EST
A Lincoln County man has been charged with three counts of possession of child pornography.
The charges are against 47-year-old Rocky Hayes, who was listed as the Jones County SD GOP Chairman in 2020 according to web archives. As of Thursday, his name for the position on the South Dakota Republican Party website has been removed. It's unclear when he may have been removed as chairman.
Calls to the South Dakota Republican Party from the Argus Leader were not returned.
Hayes is accused of having child sexual assault material in his Dropbox account, a file hosting service, according to a probable cause affidavit.
On Sept. 25, a person working for Dropbox viewed a file believed to be sexual assault material connected to an account with a screen name "Rocky Hayes," and an associated email. Court documents say video allegedly depicted a child between the ages of 9 to 12 being raped by what appeared to be an adult male.
That generated a cyber tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was then assigned to the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.
An agent with that organization executed a search warrant for the contents of that Dropbox account in November, discovering two additional videos of a girl between the ages of 8 to 13 years old, according to a probable cause affidavit.
On Jan. 19, agents executed a search warrant of Hayes' residence and business, according to the probable cause affidavit. Agents were unable to locate Hayes at either location. Agents seized an external hard drive from his home office desk that allegedly included two videos, according to the affidavit. His bond was set at $25,000 cash, according to an arrest warrant.
A probable cause affidavit indicates Hayes was behind a company, Didactic Productions, which was formerly known as Rocky Hayes Design. That company is a graphic design and communications firm.
The secretary of state's website indicates Hayes was the owner of that company, and he has three additional limited liability companies in his name, according to the secretary of state.
Hayes has an initial court hearing scheduled for Feb. 9.
This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/47-old-lincoln-county-man-195246738.html
