Mayor of Wood County village charged with misdemeanors involving texts sent to teens

1/11/2011

BOWLING GREEN — The mayor of the Wood County village of Bairdstown has been charged with two counts of disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile for forwarding a text message with an obscene photo to two teenage boys.

Christopher Barringer, 52, has a pretrial hearing in Bowling Green Municipal Court Jan. 28 on the charges, which are first-degree misdemeanors.

Terry James, a detective with the Wood County Sheriff's Office, said Mr. Barringer allegedly forwarded an image of male genitalia to a 13-year-old and 16-year-old boy he knew.

The stepmother of the 13-year-old reported the incident to the sheriff's office, he said.

“She saw the picture and reported it because obviously she was pretty upset someone would send her 13-year-old stepson a picture like that,” Det. James said.

Bairdstown is a village of 130 people two miles east of North Baltimore.