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WOOTEN BUSTED ON CHILD PORN CHARGES
Ona Man Worked For City Of Hurricane
By Mark Hallburn
Publisher
PutnamLIVE.com
Another scandal is rocking Hurricane City Hall. And this
one stretches clear to
California's capital.
Harold Dewane Wooten, a
longtime town employee, has
been busted on three felony
child pornography charges,
according to Sgt. C.M. Casto
of the West Virginia State
Police's Internet Crimes
Against Children Task Force.
.
Wooten, 56, a resident of
White's Trailer Park in Ona,
a community of Cabell County, was taken to the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville following his September 11th arrest.
Police accuse Wooten of distributing sexually explicit pictures that they say he took of underage girls in his neighborhood.
He is accused of shooting those photos with a web
camera and then distributing them on the Internet. Authorities say they recovered the web camera while searching Wooten's home. Authorities have not revealed how many pornographic images were recovered during the search.
Wooten is charged with possession, distribution and manufacturing of child pornography. His bond has been
set at $300,000.
Police also say he offered children free Internet use on his computer.
One of Wooten's neighbors is stunned and says she had no idea that Wooten was into child porn.
"There was no indication at all that this was going on here," says Jamie Wallace. "He talked to people outside by his truck after he got off work. I had no idea there was a problem. There were no signs. I would never have thought anything like this about him. I'm stunned."
According to published reports, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department in California initiated an investigation on the case starting in May. Detectives allegedly traced a lengthy list of pornographic images back to an Internet Protocol Address later linked to the computer in Cabell County. That list includes file names such as "Hot Sexy Kiddie Child Porn” and “underage Dee & Desi," according to the criminal complaint filed in Cabell County Court.
The Sacramento County detective then contacted an Internet Crimes Against Children investigator in Virginia, who then put the detective in touch with the West Virginia State Police Department’s Digital Forensics Unit.
West Virginia State Police Trooper First Class Robert J. Boggs formally filed the allegations against Wooten last week in Cabell County magistrate court. Boggs is currently assigned to the state’s Digital Forensics Unit, which just recently started investigating part of its caseload out of a Marshall University office.
According to Boggs' complaint, Wooten confessed to police that "he pictured himself with (the 14-year-old) on Webcam to make her boyfriend jealous." Those images depicted the local teenager sitting on the defendant’s lap with her breasts exposed, along with other explicit images. Pictures of the 14-year-old were then apparently broadcast/distributed over the Internet via a Webcam, according to the complaint.
Documents filed in the case indicate that detectives from California and West Virginia believe the case may involve numerous other child pornography images.
If you paid your water bill at the Hurricane City Hall
drive-thru window in recent years, Wooten was often the man who processed your payment. He is still employed and is using vacation leave.
City Manager Ben Newhouse was out of town attending meetings and unavailable for comment about the arrest. A call to Mayor Raymond Peak's home reached voice mail. So far, Peak has not returned the call.
Wooten's next court appearance in Cabell County Court is scheduled for September 21st.
Police say there may be more underage victims connected to this case. If you are a victim, or have information about a victim or this case, you are asked to contact the West Virginia State Police. The Winfield Detachment can be reached at: 304-586-2000.
It was two years ago this summer that Peak fired former Chief of Police L.D. Foster, Sft. Ron Smith, and former Cpl. Scott Adams from the town's police department. The FBI, along with recently appointed Hurricane Chief of Police Joe Sisk has been investigating that situation. No criminal charges have been filed.
