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PRESS RELEASE — On January 13, 2021, members of the Office of the Texas Attorney General’s Child Exploitation Unit executed an arrest and search warrant in Port Neches, Texas, on Port Neches Fire Chief Paul Edward Nelson, 54. The arrest and search warrants are the result of a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) CyberTipline Report from a social media site involving the transmission and receipt of child pornography through private messages.

The District Attorney’s Office is aware of the investigation and arrest of Nelson and are working with law enforcement.

A person commits the offense of Promotion of Child Pornography if the person knowingly or intentionally promotes or possesses with intent to promote visual material that visually depicts, and that the person knows depicts, a child younger than 18 years of age engaging in sexual conduct. (Texas Penal Code Section 43.26). Promotion of Child Pornography is a second-degree felony offense. The range of punishment is two  to 20 years in prison and a fine up to $10,000.

Nelson is currently being held in the Jefferson County Jail on two charges of Promotion of Child Pornography.

The investigation is ongoing at this time, and no further comment will be made by the District Attorney’s Office. For media inquiries, please contact Alejandro Garcia, Communications Director for the Office of the Texas Attorney General, at (512) 965-6699.

NCMEC serves as the national clearinghouse and reporting center for tips related to missing and exploited children. If you have information pertaining to a missing or exploited child, you can report to NCMEC online at https://www.missingkids.org or by phone at 1-800-843-5678.