BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- A former officer with the Bakersfield Police Department is facing federal child pornography charges. Christopher Bowersox, 38, was taken into custody by the FBI on Friday morning.

Bowersox allegedly was in possession of child pornography on his home computer, according to court documents.

The case was discovered when police in Tampa, Fla., arrested Nicholas William Beeman in September for possession of child pornography during an undercover investigation.

Beeman told law enforcement officers he used an Internet file-sharing program called Gigatribe to obtain child pornography. A computer forensic review of Beeman's computer revealed that he had communicated via Yahoo messenger with several others, including one user whose screen name was "cbowersox," according to the documents.

Investigators say the screen name "cbowersox" was registered to Bowersox.

Further review found conversations between the screen names "cbowersox" and "zdasher18" containing multiple references to the raping, injuring and killing children.

At one point, the two discussed a way to have sex with a child. Screen name "zdasher18" wrote, "I know it can't happen here, it's got to be somewhere else with a bought kid or something. We'd definitely get caught if we did it here." To which "cbowersox" responded, "Cambodia ... Thailand ... Mexico ... deep deep Mexico."

The pair also talked about committing murder/suicide if they should be discovered by law enforcement.

The court documents show detectives found a folder in Bowersox' computer that appeared to be surveillance photographs of students at Bakersfield High School.

In an interview with police, Bowersox reluctantly described the fantasies as things between men and boys and violence between men and boys. The court documents state that Bowersox acknowledged the conversations and stated that the communication was all fantasy and that he never carried out any of the described actions.

Bowersox resigned from his position as a detective earlier this week. A detention hearing will be held within 10 days to determine bail and whether he should remain out of custody.
________

Click here to read a portion of the criminal complaint against Bowersox. Portions deemed too graphic have not been posted online.