Feds: Western Wisconsin schools chief used teen girl for sex trafficking, making porn video

The head of a western Wisconsin school district was arrested Thursday on his way to work after his indictment on charges of using a teenage girl for sex trafficking and producing pornography.

The indictment was returned against Altoona Superintendent Daniel Peggs, 32, by a grand jury in Madison, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Western District of Wisconsin and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul.

The conduct Peggs is charged with does not involve a student from the School District, said U.S. Attorney Scott Blader.

Peggs appeared in court after his arrest while driving to district headquarters, said U.S. Attorney's Office spokeswoman Myra Longfield. He entered a preliminary not guilty plea. He is scheduled to be back in court on Monday.

The School District of roughly 1,600 students was alerted to Peggs' legal troubles as the day's instruction was about to begin, said spokeswoman Joyce Orth.

Orth said the district "is working with the school board to look at our next steps" in the wake of Peggs' sudden absence. "We realize this is a tremendous shock to the Altoona community."

Peggs' online biography says he became superintendent in July after serving as the district's middle school principal and district assessment coordinator.

The same girl was similarly exploited by a man in North Carolina, Longfield said. Those allegations led to the arrest Thursday of Bryan L. Ragon, 43, of Charlotte. The indictment alleges that Ragon victimized the girl in his home state, Wisconsin and elsewhere from Dec. 16 to Dec. 31, 2015.

According to the indictment against Peggs:

From October 2015 through May 2016, Peggs recruited and compelled a girl at least 14 years old to engage in a commercial sex act. The indictment also alleges that in December 2015, Peggs had the girl perform sexually explicit conduct for recording a pornographic video on a smartphone.

If convicted, Peggs faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison on the sex trafficking a minor charge. The production of child pornography charge carries a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years.

The charges against Peggs are the result of an investigation by the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Peggs grew up in Green Bay, received his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and his postgraduate degree from Concordia University in Wisconsin, his online biography noted.

Peggs is married and the father of four children, according to his Twitter account.

Court records do not list an attorney for Peggs.