A former Perryton police officer pleaded guilty today to child pornography charges, announced Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Prerak Shah.
Aaron Bennett Daugherty, 36, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of transportation of child pornography. He was charged via criminal complaint in February.
According to plea papers, Mr. Daugherty was nabbed in an undercover FBI investigation into individuals using Kik, a social media app popular among teenagers, to share explicit images of children.
On June 9 2020, a Kik user with an obscene screenname – later identified as Mr. Daugherty – shared a video file depicting an adult male engaged in sexual acts with a blindfolded prepubescent child.
“I’m here to look at CP, everybody,” the user posted two weeks later. “Go on with the CP content!”
Law enforcement later contacted Mr. Daugherty at the Perryton Police Department. He admitted that he used Kik to view and share child pornography, adding that child porn did not “bother” him.
The defendant now faces up to 20 years in federal prison. A sentencing hearing has not yet been set.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office – Amarillo Resident Agency, the Texas Rangers, and the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation with the full cooperation of the Perryton Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Frausto is prosecuting the case.
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