PRESS RELEASE
On Saturday, March 31, 2012, Richard Blagg, age 65, of Osceola, Arkansas, was arrested for two counts of Computer Child Pornography (Class B Felony); two counts of Unlawful Use of a Communications Device (Class C Felony); and one count of Internet Stalking of a Child (Class A Felony). The arrest was the result of an ongoing online joint investigation by the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and Flippin Police Department. Blagg had made contact and had been engaging in sexually explicit chats and sending pornographic images of himself, via the internet and cell phone, with who he believed were two different 14 year old girls, from Marion County, which in fact were undercover officers from the Marion County Sheriff’s Department and Flippin Police Department
Blagg arranged a meeting with the “girls” at a motel in Flippin, Arkansas and drove from Osceola. Upon Blagg’s arrival at the motel, he was quickly arrested without incident. Blagg’s bond was set at $100,000.00 and is currently awaiting his first appearance before the Marion County Circuit Court. Assisting the MCSO and FPD in the arrest was the Bull Shoals Police Department.