Man Faces Indecent Exposure, Child Pornography Felony Charges

A local man has been charged with a slew of charges after his girlfriend allegedly finds him having inappropriate communication with her teenage daughter.

Michael Morron, 21, a homeless man formerly from Loudon, was arrested at 11:13 a.m. on Nov. 13, and charged with endangering the welfare of a child/incompetent, indecent exposure and lewdness, a felony, exposing minor to harm (pornography-obscenity), and four counts of possession of child sexual abuse images, all felonies.

According to an arrest report and court documents, an officer began an investigation on Aug. 27, into a claim by the mother of a teenage girl that Morron had allegedly been communicating with her daughter using Skype, a video webcam service.

At the time, the mother was dating Morron, but ended the relationship after finding out that he allegedly masturbated during one of the communications. The daughter gave communication logs to the investigating officer, according to the report.

Morron allegedly initiated contact with the girl in mid-July. During conversations, he allegedly asked if the girl was going to tell her mother and talked about what he was wearing. He allegedly also wrote about being turned on and talking about his genitalia.

On July 29, the girl became upset with the interaction after Morron allegedly pleasured himself during the video cam and exposed himself to the girl.

During a month after that, the report alleged, Morron initiated or attempted to initiate communication across Skype on several occasions, but the girl would only communicate by text.

“Morron persisted with questions about whether she was ok just hearing ‘it’ if she did not see ‘it;’ ‘it’ clearly referring to masturbating,” the officer alleged. “(The girl) told him that she did not want to see it or hear it because he was dating her mom.”

The mother alleged that during a conversation with Morron, he asked if it was OK if her daughter could stay and watch if she walked into the room while he was masturbating on the webcam, the officer reported. The mother said “No,” and after that, checked the daughter’s Skype log.

The girl was interviewed by the Child Advocacy Center, which found out that Morron did know she was a minor and talked about what she had allegedly experienced with Morron across Skype. She alleged that Morron asked to keep the interaction between them but admitted it would be awkward to tell on him too if he later hated her. The girl didn’t disclose the issue until her mother inquired about it, she said.

A judge authorized a search warrant in the case and on Oct. 8, Morron’s cellphone was seized while he was at the Book-A-Million store on Fort Eddy Road. Later, a computer was seized from his bedroom in Loudon (Morron was kicked out of the home after the search warrant was issued, according to the report).

A detective and an officer interviewed Morron twice. During the interviews, he allegedly admitted to communicating with the girl across Skype and exposing himself to the girl, adding that he knew it was a crime.

“He stated he acted on an ‘urge,’” the officer noted, adding that he felt bad about it later.

Morron also allegedly admitted to receiving child pornography via phone messenger and later, four images were allegedly located on the SD card of his cellphone. Two other images were reportedly located on his computer, according to court documents.

During the course of the investigation, police allege that the case wasn’t an isolated incident, with “several people” alleging that Morron was acting inappropriately “towards family members, professional contacts, Facebook friends, and juveniles,” the court documents allege. Witnesses said they’ve offered to get him help but he only got upset about it.

On Nov. 5, an arrest warrant was issued and because Morron was perceived to be a flight risk, having allegedly stated during an interview that he might leave the state to be with an online girlfriend, he was held without bail.

Editor’s note: The following story was derived from information supplied by the Concord Police Department and Concord District Court. It does not indicate a conviction.