Posted: May. 12, 2007 9:35 a.m.
Updated: Aug. 6, 2007 2:26 a.m.

CUMBERLAND COUNTY:  Meet Spanky the Clown. The 23-year-old Ringling Bros. performer, also known as Thomas Riccio, was just nabbed on kiddie porn charges. Arrested last week when the circus pulled into Fayetteville, North Carolina, Riccio was charged with ten felony counts after a search of his computer turned up images of young children participating in lewd acts. Investigators were led to Riccio as part of a large international child porn probe, dubbed Operation Falcon, that has already resulted in about 100 U.S. arrests. Riccio, denied rouge in the mug shot, is being held in the Cumberland County jail on $150,000 bond.