Longtime
PIO ‘held visible position of public trust’
by Gregg
MacDonald
The child
pornography case of a 15-year veteran and public spokesman for the Fairfax
County Police Department has been continued until Sept. 8.
On June
17 before Fairfax County District Judge Thomas Gallahue, PFC and former public
information officer William “Bud” Walker, 50, entered the courtroom dressed in
a dark suit and sat quietly as his attorney, Ed Nuttall, asked for and was
granted a continuance of the case until September. Nuttall declined to comment
on the case.
Detectives
in the Major Crimes Division’s Child Exploitation Unit arrested Walker on April
15, at police headquarters. Police said detectives were contacted by the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children last July and were provided
a CyberTip, originally received through photo networking site Tumblr. The tip
alleged that child pornography had been uploaded through Tumblr’s servers and
police later determined that the location of the upload came from a residence within
Fairfax County.
Detectives
began their investigation on April 6, and on April 8, determined the residence
was owned by Walker. He was relieved of duty on April 9 and was charged on
April 15 with two counts of possession of child pornography.
Walker was
originally hired by the agency in December 1999. He worked in a patrol capacity
at the West Springfield District Station until 2004. He then took a position in
the Public Information Office until 2006. Walker returned to patrol at the West
Springfield District Station in March 2006 before being assigned to South
County High School as a School Resource Officer, where he worked from November
2006 until August 2009. He returned to the Public Information Office, where he
worked until being relieved of duty on April 9.
Walker
has posted a $15,000 bond and currently remains on paid administrative leave,
according to police.
In April,
Fairfax County General District Court Judge Richard E. Gardiner ordered Walker
not to use computers and to not have any unsupervised contact with minors until
his case is concluded.
Colonel
Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County chief of police, said that based on the
fact that Walker held a visible position of public trust, Roessler felt it was
imperative to place the safety of the public at the forefront of the
investigation and was appreciative of the diligent work of the numerous
detectives assigned to the case.
gmacdonald@fairfaxtimes.com
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