Child Pornography

HARRODSBURG - Randall Ray Sharp, 43, of 664 Belmont St., was arrested Tuesday and charged with one count of distribution and one count of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor, according to police. The Harrodsburg Police Department executed a search warrant Tuesday at Sharp's home. Officers said they seized a "large amount of evidence. " Sharp was arrested and is being lodged at the Boyle County Detention Center. According to a press release, the investigation is ongoing with more charges and arrests pending.

The trial of Terry Adkins, charged with more than 100 counts involving child pornography, has been continued until Jan. 20 in U.S. District Court in Lexington. Adkins' wife, Jane, was scheduled for trial Oct. 1, but her trial was continued until Dec. 9. The Nicholasville couple, arrested July 31, were indicted in August on one count each of conspiracy to receive child pornography, 100 counts of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. Terry Adkins, 25, has also been charged with first-degree sexual abuse in Boone County and similar charges in Scott County.

Less than a year after being arrested on child pornography charges, Robert Allen Walker, 41, of Nicholasville was sentenced to 188 months in prison Wednesday. According to a news release from the Office of The United States Attorney Eastern District of Kentucky, Walker admitted that he downloaded child pornography using a file sharing program called Frostwire between November 2009 and April 2010. A forensic examination of his computer revealed more than 1,700 photographs and 59 videos of child pornography, including children under the age of 12. Authorities executed a state search warrant at Walker’s residence on April 15, 2010, after investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office conducted an undercover operation into individuals sharing child pornography in Kentucky.

DANVILLE (AP) - A former Boyle County Middle School teacher serving a federal prison sentence on child pornography charges has pleaded guilty to secretly videotaping a student as she changed clothes. Mark Starr pleaded guilty Thursday in Boyle Circuit Court to use of a minor under the age of 16 in a sexual performance. The student was videotaped as she changed clothes in a school audio-visual room. Starr, 34, also pleaded guilty to tampering with physical evidence for attempting to tape over or obliterate the images on the videotape.

A Nicholasville man faces multiple child pornography charges as a result of Operation Harvest Moon, a state-wide initiative, which began Oct. 23. The arrest ends several months of investigation by the Jessamine County Sheriff's Office and other law enforcement agencies. A federal grand jury in Ashland handed down a sealed indictment against 56-year-old William Underwood of 316 Edgewood Drive No. 3. He was arrested Monday at his Lexington workplace. "My investigation on Underwood was almost a year long," Detective John Bourne said.

Former Lincoln County High School Band Director Joseph Briley was sentenced today in federal court to 87 months in prison for receiving and possessing child pornography. He was suspended without pay in March after a parent alleged he had inappropriate physical contact with her 14-year-old daughter. He later resigned and surrendered his teaching certificate for life. Find out more in Sunday's Advocate.

A Bourbon County man was sentenced to nearly 16 years in prison Monday for receiving child pornography and showing it to his neighbors. Karl Gene Klickner, 40, pleaded guilty in February in U.S. District Court in Lexington to a charge of receipt and distribution of child pornography. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Klickner will serve 85 percent of the 190-month sentence, or 13 and a half years, before being given a lifetime of supervised release.

A Danville man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in Boyle Circuit Court to three counts of sexually abusing a child. Bradley Broughman, 48, of 746 Ben Ali Drive, Apt. No. 8, originally was charged with first-degree rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 12. Danville police, acting in concert with social workers, obtained search and arrest warrants for Broughman and had to force their way into his residence to take him into custody in July 2008.

LEXINGTON - A sealed indictment was issued Thursday in federal court against a Lincoln County band director charged with receiving child pornography. Joseph Hugh Briley, 40, a 10-year veteran of the Lincoln County school system, was indicted on nine counts of receiving and being in possession of child pornography and two counts relating to his computer usage for such visual depiction. The indictment had been sealed until this morning, said Cindy Long of the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A Boyle County man who was arrested on child pornography charges more than two years ago was sentenced Monday to almost 22 years in federal prison. Stephen Ray Meade of Junction City was sentenced to 262 months - the maximum sentence possible - for conspiring to produce sexually explicit photos of a girl under the age of 16. Kyle Edelen, a U.S. Department of Justice spokesman, said Meade was convicted of conspiracy and producing child pornography, which carries a minimum 15-year sentence.

A Nicholasville man was arrested June 28 on an E-warrant stating he was in probation violation from Florida stemming from a conviction of 149 count of possession of computer child pornography.  Ronald Keith Neal, 60, of 109 North Glencove, was arrested and charged by Nicholasville police at his home.  The citation states officers confirmed he was a fugitive from Florida by using the National Crime Information Center database.  ...

Robert Wharff, 24, of 609 Hill Brook was arrested Monday, March 26, and charged with 21 counts of possession of matters portraying the sexual performance of a minor and one count of distribution of the same material. A Jessamine County grand jury indicted Wharff on March 23 based on evidence provided by investigators in the cyber-crimes unit of the Kentucky Attorney General's Office in Lexington. According to Allison Martin, communications director for the attorney general, an undercover operation identified Wharff on Nov. 2, 2011, for possible possession of child pornography.

Federal, state and local authorities spent two days in June looking for the 226 registered sex offenders in a nine-county area. All but six were found to be in compliance with Kentucky law, and one of those was in Winchester. The check, dubbed Operation Frontier Trails and led by the U.S. Marshals Service, involved sex offenders in Bath, Clark, Estill, Fleming, Menifee, Montgomery, Nicholas, Powell and Rowan counties. Local and state law enforcement officers went door-to-door on June 13 and 14 to verify that registered sex offenders were living where they were supposed to and were compliant with all state regulations.

A Danville photographer pleaded guilty Thursday to having child pornography on his computer and other electronic devices. Terry Alan Hadley, 47, faces a recommended sentence of seven years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of portraying a minor in a sexual performance. Boyle Circuit Judge Darren Peckler will sentence Hadley on Aug. 2, after he undergoes a sex offender risk assessment and pre-sentencing investigation. Officers with the state attorney general’s cyber crime unit raided Hadley’s Aperture Studio on Wilderness Road in December 2009 after a technician who was working on Hadley’s computer alerted authorities to suspicious images he had seen on a hard drive.

Less than a year after being arrested on child pornography charges, Robert Allen Walker, 41, of Nicholasville was sentenced to 188 months in prison Wednesday. According to a news release from the Office of The United States Attorney Eastern District of Kentucky, Walker admitted that he downloaded child pornography using a file sharing program called Frostwire between November 2009 and April 2010. A forensic examination of his computer revealed more than 1,700 photographs and 59 videos of child pornography, including children under the age of 12. Authorities executed a state search warrant at Walker’s residence on April 15, 2010, after investigators with the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office conducted an undercover operation into individuals sharing child pornography in Kentucky.

LANCASTER — A Garrard County grand jury has indicted a man for allegedly having child pornography on his computer. Dean Pingleton, no age or address available, was indicted on 29 counts of possession of matter portraying a sexual performance by a minor in April 2009 in Garrard County. Bond was set at $20,000. Trooper Chris Damron testified before the grand jury. Others indicted were: Charles Sharpe , 44, of Eubank, trafficking in Percocet and marijuana, and being a persistent felony offender on April 16. Bond was set at $25,000.

It's startling to think there's a movement among some federal judges to reduce punishment for those who possess child pornography. Sexually victimizing defenseless children is one of the worst crimes a person could commit. But as our criminal justice system has cracked down on the crime, sentencing laws have been revised nine times, and always with the result of adding more prison time. And counseling for the offenders is spotty or nonexistent. In the last 30 years, Congress has continuously ratcheted up the severity of punishments for the production, distribution and possession of child porn.

A Danville man was sentenced Thursday to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in Boyle Circuit Court to three counts of sexually abusing a child. Bradley Broughman, 48, of 746 Ben Ali Drive, Apt. No. 8, originally was charged with first-degree rape, sodomy and sexual abuse of a girl under the age of 12. Danville police, acting in concert with social workers, obtained search and arrest warrants for Broughman and had to force their way into his residence to take him into custody in July 2008.

LEXINGTON ? A Las Vegas man who conspired with a Junction City man to produce child pornography was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 20 years in prison. U.S. District Judge Joseph Hood imposed a 244-month sentence on Sean Marcus Hix for sexually exploiting a 12-year-old girl with the help of Stephen Meade of Junction City. Meade was sentenced to 22 years in prison in August in the same case. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Lexington said Hix, 38, represented himself as an attractive young woman to Meade in Internet chats and then the two conspired in 2007 to make sexually explicit photographs of the girl and sell them for profit.

A Winchester man will serve 20 years in federal prison for producing child pornography. Chris Helton, 38, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Lexington by Judge Karen Caldwell. In 2003, Helton photographed himself sexually abusing an 8-year-old girl, and then downloaded the images to his computer. An unnamed person discovered the images in 2008 and notified the authorities. Caldwell sentenced Helton to the maximum, citing the disturbing nature of the images and the need to protect the public.