Man gets 60 years in child-porn case

Saturday, December 22, 2012

— A Johnson County man was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 60 years in prison for taking photographs of a naked underage girl last year, according to court records.

On Thursday, U.S. District Judge P.K. Holmes III sentenced Roger Lynn Bates to 30 years in prison on each of two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, the sentences to run consecutively. He also was ordered to pay $4,000in restitution on one of the counts, according to the court records.

Bates pleaded guilty in August to an indictment charging him with the two counts. Three other counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and two of possession of child pornography were dismissed at his sentencing hearing Thursday.

According to a plea agreement with the government, the Johnson County sheriff’s office began investigating Batesin June 2011 after a woman reported finding several sexually explicit photos of a 7-yearold girl on Bates’ cell phone. Investigators later found more photos on a home computer Bates owned. The government seized the phone and computer.

Under questioning, the girl said Bates took pictures of her nude in a bathtub and on a bed on two different occasions in 2011.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 16 on 12/22/2012