Robert Sullivan
A Liberty man arrested last
fall on federal child pornography charges has signed an agreement in which he
would plead guilty to two counts of child exploitation, U.S. Attorney Joe
Hogsett said Wednesday.
Derek D. Walton, 31, was
arrested in August 2013 after FBI agents raided his home at 5242 Greenwood
Church Road. At the time, authorities located a laptop computer, a USB flash
drive and a video camera, which allegedly contained images of Walton and a
female victim.
“Today’s announcement is that
Mr. Walton acknowledges his guilt for the production of child pornography,”
Hogsett said during a visit Wednesday to the Palladium-Item.
Walton will appear in court to
formally accept the plea agreement and then later face sentencing. Dates for
those two hearings in federal court have not been set yet, Hogsett said.
If accepted, the agreement
would see Walton face a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 60 years in
prison, Hogsett said. Federal laws also require that Walton will serve at least
85 percent of the sentence handed down in the case. He also could face lifetime
supervised release upon completion of his prison time.
Walton had a history spanning a
decade as a law enforcement official in eastern Indiana, including a stint as a
reserve officer with the Richmond Police Department and as a deputy marshal for
the Laurel Police Department. Most recently, Walton had been a reserve deputy
with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department since 2004 and had served as a
reserve deputy and jail officer with the Union County Sheriff’s Department
before his arrest.
An investigation by the FBI
revealed Walton had used an AOL email account to exchange child pornographic
images and videos. In addition to using his home computer, investigators
uncovered 29 instances where Walton accessed his AOL account while at the
Franklin County Security Center between October and November 2011 to engage in
illegal child pornographic activity and conversations.
During a search of his home in
August 2013, authorities found a USB drive and a camera hidden in different
locations within the home. Those items contained 17 still images and two videos
of a nude female victim between the ages of 13 and 14. The videos include
images of the victim showering and changing clothes while being secretly
recorded inside Walton’s home in November 2012.
The arrest was part of the U.S.
Attorney’s Operation Community Watch, a program that allows federal
investigators and prosecutors the use of cutting-edge techniques to identify
and charge individuals in Indiana engaged in the receipt and trafficking of
child pornography. Hogsett said this case involved efforts by the FBI, the
Indiana State Police, the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department, the
Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and the Franklin County
Sheriff’s Department.
“The reason Operation Community
Watch is so important is because the goal is to identify pornographers in
southern Indiana in an effort to prevent Hoosier children from being
victimized,” Hogsett said.
“In this case, we not only
caught someone who was a trusted member of the community and a part of law
enforcement involved in trafficking child pornographic images, but also someone
who was victimizing Hoosier children as a pornographic producer.”