Summers County Fire Department Chief Brian Maxwell Cale, 34, has been arrested on multiple felony charges following a lengthy investigation into child pornography allegations and soliciting a minor.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Summers County, an officer with the West Virginia State Police met with a concerned Hinton resident on June 6 to discuss a complaint regarding solicitation of a minor.
During the interview, the complainant told the officer that on October 2, 2020, she saw a Snapchat depicting Cale vaping and snorting an unknown substance with minors. In another Snapchat, Cale had messaged a minor asking if she wanted to have sex.
Those Snapchats were later sent as evidence to the West Virginia State Police.
On October 13, officers received a tip line report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children depicting two Snapchat photos of a man and a juvenile female. In the photos, the man, later identified as Cale, can be seen to “move the juveniles’ panties to the side, showing [her] vagina,” the complaint states.
Officers then spoke with a Child Protective Services employee who stated that Cale was contacted by CPS in December 2020 regarding the Snapchats.
Cale allegedly told CPS that it was just him and the one juvenile female in the Snapchat and that the substance being snorted was sugar, the complaint continues. The juvenile was 15 years old at the time of the incident.
Cale was booked at Southern Regional Jail on June 8. He faces one felony count of child abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian creating risk of injury; one felony count of distribution and exhibiting material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct; one felony count of soliciting a minor via computer and one misdemeanor count of contributing to the delinquency of child.
A surety/cash bond has been set at $100,000.
