Attorney General's cyber crime unit's first conviction

Waldron man pleads guilty to child pornography charges, receives 80-year prison sentence.

A Scott County man arrested last August by agents with the Attorney General’s Office today pleaded guilty to multiple counts of possession of child pornography, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced.

Richard W. King, 34, of Waldron was sentenced to 80 years in prison after pleading guilty to eight counts of possessing, distributing or viewing matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child. Circuit Judge Jerry Don Ramey handed down the sentence during a hearing in Logan County Circuit Court in Paris. King was sentenced to 120 months on each count, with those sentences to be served consecutively.

King’s conviction is the first to result from an arrest by the Attorney General’s new Cyber Crimes Unit, which launched last May.

“This man will now spend a significant amount of time in the penitentiary away from our children and cut off from the ability to continue to harm them,” McDaniel said. “It’s our goal in the Attorney General’s Office to be an active leader in the fight against Internet crimes against children, and I am pleased that we have secured our first conviction in this fight."

King was arrested following an investigation by the Cyber Crimes Unit that began last June. Multiple images of child pornography were found on a laptop computer belonging to King after a full forensic examination of the computer at the Cyber Crimes Unit Forensic Lab in Little Rock. Also, King admitted to investigators that he had downloaded approximately 15 videos of child pornography.

In addition to his prison sentence, King will be required to register as a sex offender.

King has been held in the Scott County Jail since his arrest. He will remain there until he is transferred into the custody of the Arkansas Department of Correction to serve his sentence.

The Scott County Sheriff’s Office and the Fifteenth District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office assisted in the arrest, investigation and conviction.

“Our Cyber Crimes Unit would not be as effective without the help and support of prosecuting attorneys and law enforcement agencies across the state,” McDaniel said. “I appreciate the hard work of Sheriff Cody Carpenter and Prosecutor Tom Tatum in this case.”

Tatum appointed Assistant Attorney General Bart Dickinson as special prosecutor in the case. Dickinson was assisted by Fifteenth Judicial District Chief Deputy Prosecutor John Reidel.