Bruce Vielmetti, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
The superintendent of a suburban Eau Claire school district has been charged with sex trafficking and possessing child pornography.
Daniel Peggs, 32, superintendent at the School District of Altoona, was arrested Thursday based on a two-count federal indictment returned under seal by a Madison grand jury last week.
Peggs has worked in the district since 2016, as middle school principal and district assessment coordinator before being named superintendent in July, according to his LinkedIn page.
The indictment charges that from October 2015 to May 20, 2016, Peggs "knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, and maintained by any means" a girl who was under 18, to engage in prostitution.
A second count charges that in December 2015, Peggs made an iPhone video of the same girl engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
U.S. Attorney Scott Blader indicated the girl was not a student in the Altoona district.
Joyce Orth, the district's communications coordinator, said the school board planned to meet in executive session at noon. A news conference was scheduled for 4 p.m.
Peggs was arrested Thursday morning in Altoona and made his initial appearance in Madison in federal court this afternoon before Magistrate Judge Stephen L. Crocker. He pleaded not guilty to the two charges and will remain in custody until his detention hearing Monday.
Peggs' teaching and administrator licenses are under investigation, according to Wisconsin Department of Instruction records. He holds a lifetime license to teach physics, chemistry and physical science, and he has held a license to be a principal since 2015 and a superintendent since 2017.
Journal Sentinel reporter Sophie Carson contributed.
Contact Bruce Vielmetti at (414) 224-2187 or bvielmetti@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @ProofHearsay.
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