When Is A Girl Not A Girl
Meet 17 Year Old Nicole (Nikki) Blalock of Kansas City.
Actually the above mugshot is that of Shannon Phillip Tankersley, age 40, of Broken Arrow, OK, who was until his arrest and subsequent firing a school bus driver for Union Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Tankersley was arrested by members of the Innocent Images Task Force which consists of FBI agents and officers from Tulsa, Broken Arrow and Bixby Police Departments.
Tankersley came to their attention when the mother of a 14-year-old Georgetown, Texas boy discovered nude pictures of her son on his Yahoo! account and suspected that he had sent them to a female in another state. A female with whom her son was communicating via MySpace.com.
On January 2nd, the mother reported her discovery and suspicions to local police setting in motion an investigation during which authorities traced the communications between the boy and Tankersley to his Broken Arrow, OK address.
A search warrant was executed at the Tankersley residence and computerized images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were allegedly found on a computer used by Tankersley. Tankersley was arrested on federal charges of knowingly receiving and possessing child pornography.
Broken Arrow Police Detective Ian Buchanan testifying in a bond hearing for Tankersley in federal court in Tulsa indicated that a woman had called him and said that her son told her that he had inappropriate physical contact with Tankersley while the accused was driving a school bus for Tulsa Public Schools, prior to his employment by Union Public Schools.
Buchanan also testified that Tankersley would send out pictures of what appear to be young female models when exchanging photos with male youths and that in addition to the ‘Nicole’ identity also maintained a second false identity, that of ‘Ashley’.
At the bond hearing U.S. Magistrate Paul Cleary indicated that Tankersley could be released on $50,000 unsecured bond that would include provisions such as electronic monitoring, mental health treatment, no computer access and no interaction with minors. Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Morgan announced her intention to appeal the magistrate’s ruling. Tankersley will remain jailed until the appeal is heard.
Update 1:
In July 2007 Tankersley pleaded guilty in federal court to a charge of enticing a minor into sending sexually explicit material over the Internet.
Sentencing is set for October 10th.
Tankersley faces a prison term of between 15 to 30 years.
