When law enforcement investigators followed allegations that a former Jackson Hole fire chief was viewing child pornography, they learned that he also had a sexual relationship with a judge in his new home of Utah, court documents allege.
The Utah Attorney General’s Office charged Ned Brady Hansen, 54, last week with eight counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
Hansen was the Jackson Hole Fire Department chief from about 2017-2022 and had more recently been the Tremonton, Utah, Fire Chief.
Also charged last week was Judge Kevin Robert Christensen, 64, who served prior in Box Elder County, Utah. He faces two charges of enticing a minor to sexual activity, two of dealing in materials harmful to minors, three of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor and one of obstruction of justice.
Law enforcement personnel started investigating Hansen on Nov. 21, 2024, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children raised a child-pornography alert that police believe led back to Hansen, says an evidentiary affidavit by FBI Agent Jason Merrill.
Investigators served a warrant on Hansen’s home and seized his electronic devices Jan. 27. They told him his Miranda rights and he agreed to speak with law enforcement, says the affidavit.
Hansen confessed he had a “pornography addiction” and had developed tastes for “younger” females, says the document.
He discussed downloading child pornography, and investigators found a “large amount” of it on his phone, wrote Merrill.
The Chats
As investigators inspected the devices further, Merrill wrote, they found Hansen discussing wanting to molest babies, and telling another person how “hot” it would be to molest a toddler-aged girl together, and to “hold her down and take turns.”
Hansen discussed wanting to kidnap a homeless girl or rape a drunk girl, the affidavit alleges.
Agents found child pornography videos and photographs in the phone, the document adds.
The Arrest
Law enforcement personnel first arrested Hansen Jan. 27.
At that time they didn’t know that Hansen had “engaged in other chats with a certain other internet user,” wrote Merrill. These extensive chats showed the two men had met “in real life to engage in sexual acts” the agent added.
Merrill wrote that the men discussed being “turned on” and wanting to share children they knew.
“Law enforcement investigated the identity of this other party and discovered that this person was Kevin Robert Christensen, a justice court judge in Box Elder County, Utah,” Merrill wrote.
Police at Hansen’s January arrest asked Christensen, the case judge, to hold the man without bail. But the judge released Hansen, without disclosing “he had engaged in sexually charged chats regarding children with … Hansen,” the affidavit says.
Investigators have found more chats since then, reportedly.
Leaving Jackson
Hansen is originally from Alta, Wyoming, and had served as Jackson Hole Fire Chief for five years ending in 2022, according to a news report at the time.
He’d already spent 30 years in fire service, the story says.
Hansen told the outlet that he wanted to move to Utah with his wife.
Judge’s Case
Christensen’s case affidavit describes him trying to groom and share sexual material with a 13-year-old girl.
The document says he pleaded for pictures or videos from a 16-year-old girl online as well.
Christensen asked someone for pornography depicting girls from 0-15 years old, the affidavit alleges.
Both men’s felony-level cases are ongoing.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
