Man Charged with Felony Peeping in North Carolina

By LINDELL KAY
Daily News Staff
The wife of a Jacksonville man charged with taking nude photos of an intoxicated teenager tried to erase the pictures from a digital camera before law enforcement could obtain the images, according to court documents.
Dustin Paul Cosper, 38, a Camp Lejeune Marine staff sergeant, was charged Monday by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department with crime against nature, felony secret peeping, and second-degree sexual offense against a 16-year-old girl. He had his first court appearance Tuesday morning and remains in jail under a $50,000 bond.
His wife, Marie Michelle Cosper, was told by a social worker to preserve the photographic evidence of the alleged crime, but she erased the photos instead, according to affidavits attached to search warrants obtained by The Daily News.
Sheriff’s Capt. Rick Sutherland said the investigation is still open and he would not comment on possible charges against Marie Cosper.
Charlotte Martin, Dustin Cosper’s stepdaughter, said her family is being torn apart by what has happened.
"I have a mom in Brynn Marr (a mental behavioral hospital) and a stepfather in jail," she told The Daily News on Tuesday. "We are in a whirlwind. My stepfather just got back from Iraq; I don’t know what to believe."
After talking to reporters outside the Cosper home on Hunter Ridge Drive on Tuesday afternoon, Martin sat crying in her pickup truck before driving away.
Unfolding events of the last 10 days has Martin questioning her own beliefs, she said.
"On (March 7), during the evening hours, Dustin Paul Cosper consumed alcoholic beverages with his wife and (the 16-year-old)," according to a press release from the Sheriff’s Department.
Dustin Cosper is accused of going to where the teenage girl was sleeping and undressing her, according to warrants.
Dustin Cosper then took photos of the girl with his hands on her genitals and buttocks, according to warrants.
Three days later, on March 10, the girl told her doctor about what had happened. The doctor informed Social Services and a social worker contacted Marie Cosper who said she had the photos on a digital camera, according to an affidavit signed by Sheriff’s Sgt. John Getty.
The social worker "told Marie Michelle Cosper that she needed to keep those pictures so the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office could see them and explained to her that she had to make a law enforcement and district attorney referral," Getty wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
When Getty called Marie Cosper, she said she erased the pictures on the digital camera so no one could see them, the affidavit states.
However, the alleged victim had already removed the Olympus XD memory card from the camera and hid it in the console of an armchair in the Cosper home. She then told Martin where the card could be found.
Martin retrieved the card and it was handed over to law enforcement, according to affidavits and an interview with Martin.
A search warrant shows the card was searched for images of the girl and other child porn.
Investigators would not discuss what was found on the card, saying only that they obtained enough evidence to make an arrest in the case.
Dustin Cosper is an electric maintenance technician with 2nd Radio Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force Headquarters Group, said 1st Lt. Philip Klay, a spokesman for II MEF. Cosper joined the Marine Corps in August 1994 and has deployed twice to Iraq. His awards include the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, the Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal with two bronze stars in lieu of third award, Sea Service Deployment Ribbon with two bronze stars in lieu of third award, Iraq Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal.