Police officer arrested for possession of child pornography

EUSTACE — Our news partner, KETK, reports that an East Texas officer has been arrested on charges of child pornography. MediaLab Inc., which owns the platform Kik, alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about three videos depicting minors engaging in sexual conduct that had been uploaded to their platform by an account on June 13th, along with the account’s IP address and email associated email address.

The affidavit stated that on Nov. 14, the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office subpoenaed Optimum for information about the IP address, revealing it belonged to the Eustace Police Department. A search warrant was obtained for MediaLab that same day. On December 25, investigators examined the items collected during the search, and found several screenshots of videos showing infant and young child pornography.

“While looking through the content folder, [the investigator] observed a photo of a white male’s face sitting inside a car. The background of this photo appears to be a police car,” the affidavit stated. “While looking through the folder there was another image of the same male, in the suspected police car from a different angle.” Investigators contacted Eustace Mayor, Dustin Shelton, who identified the man as one of his police officers, Cody Mitchell Burris, 32 of Tyler.

On Saturday, Burris was arrested on four counts of possession of child pornography and two counts of possession with intent to promote child pornography. Shelton said Burris resigned following his arrest and remains in the Henderson County Jail on a total bond of $575,000.

“The City of Eustace and the Eustace Police Department are members of the [Henderson County Crimes Against Children] Task Force and are fully cooperating and assisting with the investigation as needed,” Shelton said. “To wear a badge for the Eustace Police Department is a position of public trust. We want to thank the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office and Crimes Against Children Task Force for their work on this case.”

Shelton said due to the ongoing investigation, no further comments will be released at this time.