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Zachary Allen Simon -
Adam Meaux -
A post from Adam Meaux mentioning lack of police attention towards pedophiles in 2020
After reviewing the probation agreement penned for a soon-to-be registered sex offender who pleaded guilty to 10 counts of child pornography possession, the Jefferson County District Attorney Bob Wortham withdrew the deal and set the Nederland man’s case on track for trial this week. Prosecutors from the office also announced additional pending charges for (now former) Beaumont Municipal Airport employee Adam Meaux, who was reportedly relieved of duties at the city-owned and operated airport where his father is the manager and where the accused allegedly produced child pornography.
No deal
Sept. 12, 28-year-old Zachary Allen Simon pleaded guilty to possessing videos of adults raping and sexually assaulting infants before 252nd District Court Judge Raquel West – 10 videos to be exact, each depicting a different “prepubescent” victim, some still in diapers, being forcefully abused by adults. Officer narration of the confiscated videos describes the acts in details too graphic for print.
According to Simon’s 30-page indictment released July 2021 that documents the child rape, investigators from the Attorney General’s Office executed a search warrant at Simon’s Nederland residence Oct. 1, 2020. The search stemmed from a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children report noting Simon had uploaded more than 10 files of adults sexually assaulting infants and children.
During the search, investigators retrieved Simon’s cellphone from his pocket, and, upon previewing the saved data, officers located “numerous files of child pornography.”
The first video described in the affidavits is one minute and 59 seconds; it shows an adult man holding down and sexually assaulting an infant. Another video shows an adult man raping a sleeping infant for approximately two minutes and 26 seconds. The sixth video detailed in Simon’s indictments depicts an adult man sexually assaulting a pre-pubescent boy for nearly five minutes. According to the affidavit, a handwritten note appearing to show the victim’s name and a date could be seen on the child’s stomach.
“The defendant consented to an interview and claimed ownership of the online storage account, as well as uploading files of child pornography to that account,” penned Sgt. Steve O’Neal of the Attorney General’s Office. “(Simon) further confessed to trading files of child pornography with others using social media accounts.”
The unapproved plea agreement that would allow the accused to skip jail time as long as he follows the conditions of probation for a decade, including full abstention from internet use, no contact with anyone under 18 and mental treatment, was rescinded shortly after its proposal. Simon faces the potential for 100 years in prison and $100,000 in fines. If he’s found guilty, he’ll also have to register as a sex offender, meaning he can’t live within 1,000 feet of a school or child care facility. According to court information, Simon’s listed address, located in the 2500 block of Central Boulevard, is approximately 1,300 feet from Nederland High School.
Sex offender registration and the public notification law are designed to protect the public from sex offenders, according to the Texas Department for Public Safety (DPS). This law requires adult and juvenile sex offenders to register with the local law enforcement authority of the city they reside in or, if the sex offender does not reside in a city, with the local law enforcement authority of the county in which they reside. Registration involves the sex offender providing the local law enforcement authority with information that includes, but is not limited to, the sex offender’s name and address, a color photograph, and the offense of which the offender was convicted.
“Registered sex offenders are required to periodically report to the local law enforcement authority to verify the accuracy of the registration information and to promptly report certain changes in the information as those changes occur,” DPS reports. “A sex offender who fails to comply with any registration requirement is subject to felony prosecution.”
Flying the coop
Sept. 19, in an attempt to get out of town for airport work in deep Texas, criminally indicted Adam Meaux requested that Judge Raquel West grant him special release from court-ordered county confinement while he is out on bond for multiple indictments charging possession of child pornography. Meaux, who has already negotiated road trips for “medical appointments” in Houston over the last couple months that he’s been on bond, was hoping to seek work in Bexar County, according to attorney Tom Kelley.
The former 25-year-old Port Neches airplane pilot that worked at the Beaumont Municipal Airport under his father, General Manager Chris Meaux, and is frequently still reportedly seen on the property, told the court that he couldn’t supply a detailed request for travel, which didn’t help in garnering judicial support for the proposed the excursion.
The death knell to Meaux’s request, however, came in prosecutorial objection to unsupervised travel. In the absence of the prosecutor assigned to the case, Assistant District Attorney Luke Nichols told the court that the state anticipates additional charges against the Beaumont pilot.
“She expects there to be more cases soon to be indicted,” Nichols said of victims that are believed to be “in person” at the Beaumont Municipal Airport. “There are allegations he was photographing children in the airport,” using airport WiFi and equipment.
Prior indicted offenses allege that Meaux, while in the employ of the Beaumont Municipal Airport and at his place of employment, posted and downloaded more than 100 videos and photos of children being sexually assaulted, at least one as young as 1 year old. Facing 10 felony counts of possessing child pornography, Meaux spent nominal time in jail and has been free on bail since his May arrest.
A probable cause affidavit penned by Sgt. Chris Rybarski of the Texas Attorney General’s Office reveals the agency was looking into Meaux’s online presence long before his 2022 arrest.
“On April 23, 2021, the National Center for the Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline received an electronic report from Google, reporting a user who uploaded 68 files of child pornography to their platform,” Rybarski swore, advising that he ultimately identified the suspect as a city of Beaumont employee later that same year.
In October 2021, after Google sent Meaux’s user information to the AG investigator, Rybarski viewed 38 files allegedly attributed to Meaux, showing girls as young as 6 being sexually assaulted. An open records request from the investigator revealed that Meaux used a computer at the Beaumont Municipal Airport to login to the account harboring his child pornography files.
After executing a search warrant for Meaux’s Google history, Rybarski received a return from the company in March 2022 and found “numerous” images and videos depicting child pornography, writing, “Your affiant also identified several images of Meaux at the Beaumont Municipal Airport, which is Meaux’s place of employment.”
West reset Meaux to appear in the 252nd District Court in approximately one month, at which time any new indictments are expected to have been presented to a grand jury for indictment.