A former Hancock County Deputy was sentenced for producing child pornography.
38-year-old Derrick Patrick Flanagan worked at the Diamondhead Police Department and was sentenced to serve 360 months in federal prison, followed by a lifetime of supervised release for producing visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
In addition to his term, Flanagan was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015 and a $10,000 assessment under the Amy, Vicky and Andy Child Pornography Victim Assistance Act of 2018.
According to court documents, Flanagan was identified in February 2022 in an investigation brought to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office Cyber Crime Division and the FBI by the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office had received two CyberTip Reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Flanagan used the name “John Adams” with a gmail.com email address, and the other account was under the name “Derrick Flanagan” and used another gmail.com email address.
These CyberTips were ultimately found to be related to Hancock County Deputy Derrick Flanagan, who was assigned to work at the Diamondhead Police Department and resided in Gulfport.
Forensic examinations of a laptop and cellular telephones recovered during the investigation found multiple visual depictions of child sexual abuse material. The investigation recovered over 40,000 lines of chats sent via a Snapchat that corresponded to multiple visual depictions.
Flanagan pled guilty on April 20 to production of child pornography.
