Politician pleads not guilty to election crime and nude photo cases

LIBERTY, Mo. - The former Clay County auditor pleaded not guilty Wednesday to election and nude photo charges brought on by an NBC Action News investigation.

Norris made no comment before or after the hearing. His attorney, Shawn Blair, made the not guilty plea on his behalf in court.

William Norris was arrested after the Investigators uncovered nude photos and a felony stalking conviction in his past.

A police affadavit says Norris was ordered to 5 years probation under a Suspended Imposition of Sentence that sealed his record after pleading guilty to a 2005 felony aggravated stalking case.

According to documents filed with the Clay County Circuit Court, prosecutors charged Norris with a felony election crime for "false swearing" in a candidate form where he claimed he had never pleaded guilty to a felony when he filed as a Republican for the auditor's office in 2010.

Our investigation also uncovered nude photos of a woman from Norris' hometown published on a national website and the identical photos stored on a Photobucket account registered to his e-mail.

According to a court charges, Norris "knowingly and without authorization used data, photographs" of the woman, "which the defendant knew and believed was taken by a person who did not have authorization to do so."

Blair says the defense has not yet received the documents prosecutors say support the allegations.

Blair says he won’t comment until the defense reviews those documents.

During his campaign, Norris claimed he was a CPA, a graduate of William Jewell, and a former corporate comptroller.

The Iowa company Norris claimed to work for told NBC Action News he was a clerk at a Kansas City office and never worked at the corporation's headquarters or as a comptroller in any capacity.

Police documents indicate Norris's William Jewell transcript show he only completed six hours and flunked two of four classes leaving with a GPA of 1.825.

State officials say Norris was never a CPA and there is no record of him ever applying or taking the required test.

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To see much more about our investigation into Norris and the charges against  him, visit http://bit.ly/uDztd6