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SOUTH JORDAN — A former Sandy fire captain now faces 21 criminal charges, including 15 felonies, accusing him of searching for child pornography and setting up hidden cameras in his wife's home salon.
Clinton Mark McKee, 44, of South Jordan, was charged Wednesday in 3rd District Court with 14 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; voyeurism committed against a child, a third-degree felony; and six counts of voyeurism by electronic equipment, a class A misdemeanor.
McKee had been with the Sandy Fire Department since 2007, was named as Sandy's Firefighter of the Year in 2013, and had risen to the rank of captain before he was arrested on March 10. Several hours after his arrest, city officials announced that McKee was "no longer employed" by the department.
The investigation began in January when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a tip that someone had files of suspected child pornography on their Kik app. McKee was identified as the user of that file, according to charging documents, and a search warrant was served at his house on March 10.
"Law enforcement officials seized 11 items, including thumb drives, an external hard drive, digital cameras, a cellphone, and a laptop computer," the charges state.
When questioned, McKee said he would continually download the Kik app, search for suspected child pornography, and then delete the app, police said.
"McKee said that he would download Kik and make up a new email and username to create an account. McKee would search for and view child sexual abuse material, using the search terms 'teen' and 'voyeur.' McKee would sometimes share these files with other users. McKee would then delete Kik," according to the charges.
He also told investigators that over the past year, he had "secretly hidden cameras in his wife's salon to record videos of female children getting spray tanned," the charges state, in addition to recording girls getting undressed. Seven victims were identified in the videos, according to investigators.
Prosecutors have requested that McKee be held without bail in the Salt Lake County Jail pending trial, noting that he "was in considerable emotional distress and spoke about the amount of shame he felt" at the time of his arrest.
Correction: In an earlier version, Clinton Mark McKee's first name was incorrectly reported as Clayton.
