A federal grand jury in Honolulu returned an indictment Wednesday charging John Ridgely Tucker, 56, of Pahoa with six counts of producing child pornography, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the indictment, Tucker used and enticed two children, who are identified only by initials, to produce six images of child pornography in 2008.

The FBI Honolulu Division initiated an investigation after receiving three images
of child pornography from the National Center of Missing and Exploited
Children.  The images depicted two minor children engaged in sexually explicit
conduct, and appeared to show a telephone book issued by Hawaiian Telephone
Company for the Big Island of Hawaii.

In an unrelated case in Phoenix, Arizona, FBI agents recovered the same images,
as well as an image of the two minors with a man.  The picture of the man was forwarded to the FBI Honolulu office, which put out a press release asking
the public to identify him.

On Oct. 10, the FBI received information that the person in the picture
was Tucker, according to an affidavit.

The grand jury indictment contains six charges, each of which carries a minimum penalty of 15 years in jail, and up to 30 years of imprisonment, and a potential lifetime term of supervised release.

The charges in the indictment are merely accusations, and Tucker is presumed innocent until proven guilty.  Tucker has been arrested and ordered detained without bail.