Coach busted on child porn charges

Cathy Scott

Friday, April 5, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The district attorney's office is making a plea to parents of children who may have been in contact with a Henderson Little League coach now in custody on child pornography charges.

John Cowan, 47, was arrested Tuesday evening in his southeast valley apartment. He was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on 11 counts of felony child pornography. He is being held on a $49,000 bond.

The crime of using a minor in production of pornography carries a life sentence, said John Lukens, who's in charge of the DA's Crimes Against Women and Unit.

So far, no victims have been positively identified, Lukens said today. Lukens asked that parents who suspect that Cowan may have acted inappropriately toward their children call the Henderson or Metro police departments if they have questions or concerns.

Cowan was a Little League coach until his arrest and had been coaching "for several years," Lukens said. The information police have on Cowan goes back five years, he said.

Metro Police searching Cowan's apartment at 4255 Channel 10 Drive, off Flamingo Road, confiscated numerous photos of Cowan with young boys, Lukens said. Also, officers found an audio tape of a boy and Cowan speaking and photographs of boys in sexually explicit poses, he said.

In the photos, Lukens said the youngest boys appear to be 8 or 9 years old, with the majority between 12 and 14 years old.

While Lukens is asking that people come forward, it won't necessarily help the prosecution's case, Lukens, said, because "I have plenty of information to see that justice is done."

"But if you had a child, wouldn't you like to know and get him counseling?" he asked. "I'm advising the community."

Besides the child pornography charges, Cowan faces a charge of possessing a short-barreled shotgun, which police removed from his apartment during the search.

Cowan also used the name "Cryslite" to contact boys through the America Online computer service.

"He went to the on-line chat rooms and posed as a young girl, 16 or 17 years old, and wanted to meet younger boys who were like 13 or 14," Lukens said, noting that investigators gathered that information from printouts lying next to Cowan's computer, which police also confiscated.

Lukens said he didn't know if he was successful in meeting the boys. Investigators had not yet looked at records stored in Cowan's computer.