Former Ala. held on MIss. weapons charge

Published 12:13 am Friday, January 9, 2009

A federal judge has ruled that former policeman Edward Scott Yancey, convicted in Alabama on a child pornography charge, should remain in custody pending a grand jury review of a firearm charge in Mississippi.

Police say Yancey also faces a child molestation charge on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John Roper held Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence to present Yancey’s case to a grand jury.

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Yancey, 37, was prosecuted in federal court in Alabama in 1998 for possession of child pornography. The FBI said Yancey, a Gulf Shores, Ala., police officer at the time of his arrest, received three years probation and was required to register as a sex offender.

Authorities said that on Nov. 14, 2008, Yancey was arrested by Long Beach, Miss., police on allegations that he molested a 10-year-old boy. Prosecutors said that during that investigation, evidence was obtained that the defendant was allegedly in possession of a firearm.