Local nurse practitioner indicted on two counts of distributing child pornography

A federal grand jury indicted Lucas Allen Fussell, a former nurse practitioner who worked for Eastern Shore Rural Health, on two counts of distributing child pornography, according to documents filed this week in U.S. District Court.

In mid-July, 42-year-old Fussell was arrested at his Coastal Boulevard home in Onley in a 15-officer-strong FBI raid. Before that, he was allegedly caught sending sexually explicit materials depicting children to a covert police officer. At that point, Fussell was charged in a criminal complaint.

He is still being held in federal custody without bond and is on a medical watch.

Meanwhile, Rural Health fired him and quickly set up a patient hotline. It has also advertised that it is looking for a new candidate to fill the position.

The second indictment alleges that on June 20, 2024, Fussell distributed three digital videos of the men and boys in the same type of online messaging.

Now that indictments have been brought, the matters were assigned to a federal district judge instead of a magistrate judge. An arraignment was set for Aug. 6 before Judge Rudolph Contreras.

Fussell began working for Rural Health in 2012. His own company, Compassion in Care MMC LLC, was headquartered at his house, records on the Virginia State Corporation Commission website state. That business was started about two years ago.

Prosecutor Paul V. Courtney said Congress determined that those charged with distributing child pornography should be detained pending trial, and are subject to a five-year mandatory minimum term of imprisonment upon conviction. The prosecutor added, “for using a computer or interactive computer service … and for the number of images, based on the evidence available at this early stage of the case,” the range for the crime is 17.5 to 21.8 years in prison.

“The defendant took substantially more premeditated and sophisticated measures to evade detection” by setting up a private video network on his router, buying a dedicated cellphone, installing a system for pixels, using a flash drive with hardware-based encryption, and watching child pornography on a laptop not connected to the internet,” the prosecutor contended.

He “was conscious” that distributing such materials is illegal and “engaged in it anyway,” which “raises significant concern about the defendant’s ability to avoid or circumvent supervision if released.”

Evidence against Fussell is “strong” and despite using encryption methods he provided his home address, identified the model of his vehicle, and revealed that he worked in the medical profession by making numerous comments about examining patients, the prosecutor continued. He lived alone, his residence was searched and items were seized.