A tip from the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children led to the arrest of a Millbrook attorney on Wednesday. According to Elmore Autauga News, John David Norris, 65, was taken into custody by the Millbrook Police Department and charged with four counts of dissemination of child pornography.

In February of 2024, authorities began their investigation of Norris after learning from the advocacy organization that an individual in the jurisdiction was downloading and disseminating child sex abuse material. After Millbrook Police secured warrants for Norris’ office and home, several electronic devices with child pornography were confiscated. MPD submitted the devices to the Computer Forensics Unit with the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, which found probable cause to allow the case to move ahead.

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“It absolutely sickens me that our detectives and officers have to work cases like this,” said MPD Chief P.K. Johnson. “As a parent of two daughters and a grandparent of three beautiful children, I look at my family every day knowing that I’ve seen things in my 37 years of law enforcement that I can’t unsee, just as the officers involved in this case and others they’ve had to investigate. It’s hard to see any victim that’s been abused or exploited, but it hits you differently when the victim is a minor child.”

“You ask yourself how anyone could cause harm to a precious child or derive any sort of enjoyment from their exploitation.”

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Norris was taken to the Elmore County Jail and is now being held on $80,000 bond.

An Elmore County grand jury has issued an indictment in the case.

Austen Shipley is the News Director for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten