A former Jackson Hole Fire/EMS chief charged with numerous child sex crimes in Utah is now being sued by two girls who claim he sexually abused them and distributed nude photos of them online when they were younger than 7 and 5 years old.
Ned Brady Hansen’s criminal case in Weber County, Utah, is ongoing. He’s charged with eight counts of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor on claims that he was trafficking videos of young children nude and in sexual situations.
Court documents also say Hansen was sexually involved with a local judge, Kevin Robert Christensen, who released him from jail against the wishes of law enforcement in January.
Christensen’s case is also ongoing.
The charges against him allege obstruction of justice, attempted aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor dealing in materials harmful to a minor and enticing a minor to sexual activity.
Girls Suing
Through a parent, two Utah girls sued Hansen after his criminal case surfaced.
They filed their complaint March 19, which was about a week after Hansen’s criminal charges were filed. In it, the girls say Hansen molested them when they were between the ages of 0-7 and 0-5, respectively, and that he distributed nude photographs of them online.
Hansen in an April 7 answer to the lawsuit denies the claims.
Hansen was the Jackson Hole Fire Department chief from about 2017-2022 and had more recently been the Tremonton, Utah, fire chief.
If the girls’ allegations prove to be true, Hansen would have still been running Jackson Hole Fire Department while sexually abusing them and sharing sexually explicit photographs of them.
One of the girls says that Hansen started touching her sexually in 2018 and continued into 2025, and that he took explicit photographs of her throughout that time and send them to “other unnamed individuals on the internet and through chat apps, text messages, and other electronic means.”
She was between the ages of 0 and 7 in that timeframe, the complaint says.
The second girl says that Hansen started sexually abusing her in 2020, and continued into 2025.
He also spread explicit photographs of her on the internet, the complaint alleges.
The document says the second girl was between the ages of 0 and 5 during that timeframe.
The Ask
The girls’ parent is asking for a jury trial and to receive fees and damages — including punitive — deemed appropriate at that trial.
The complaint accuses Hansen of the following civil actions:
• Sexual assault of each girl.
• Sexual battery of each girl.
• Sexual exploitation of each girl.
• Intentional infliction of emotional distress against each girl.
• Negligent infliction of emotional distress against each girl.
The Investigation
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.
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.
A spokesperson to whom the Jackson Hole Fire Department referred Cowboy State Daily did not immediately return a voicemail request for comment.
Judge’s Case
Christensen’s case affidavit describes him allegedly 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.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
