Saturday, February 01, 2025
39.0°F

Kentucky offender let out of prison by Bevin charged by feds

Associated Press | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 years, 10 months AGO
by Associated Press
| April 7, 2020 12:03 PM

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky man who had sex crime convictions commuted by former Gov. Matt Bevin last year has been charged by federal prosecutors with producing child pornography.

The new charge against Dayton Jones stems from events that led to sodomy and other charges against him by Kentucky prosecutors in 2014. He was a few years into a 15-year sentence when Bevin commuted the sentence last year, nullifying the case in state court.

The U.S. Attorney's office in Louisville said on Tuesday that Jones, 24, was arrested on one charge of producing child sex abuse material. The federal charge carries a minimum of 15 years in prison upon conviction.

U.S. Attorney Russell Coleman said in a release that the new charge stems from events in 2014. Jones had pleaded guilty to assaulting a 15-year-old boy with a sex toy who had passed out from drinking. He was also found guilty in that case of making a video of the act, which Coleman said was shared on Snapchat. The U.S. Attorney release said Jones “created a video depicting child pornography."

Coleman did not mention Bevin's actions in the news release Tuesday.

“This prosecution is about one thing and one thing only, Mr. Jones’ conduct in harming someone’s child in the western district of Kentucky in violation of federal law,” Coleman said.

Bevin issued hundreds of pardons before leaving office in December, attracting criticism from lawmakers, prosecutors and victims for a handful of pardons of violent felons that appeared to be politically motivated.

Christian County Commonwealth's Attorney Rick Boling admitted to writing a letter to Bevin in December on Jones' behalf. Boling later publicly apologized for the letter, asking for forgiveness for the "embarrassment that I have caused this community.”

MORE IMPORTED STORIES

Kentucky offender let out of prison by Bevin charged by feds
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 4 years, 9 months ago
Bills respond to Bevin's flurry of last-minute pardons
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years ago
Bills respond to Bevin's flurry of last-minute pardons
Columbia Basin Herald | Updated 5 years ago

ARTICLES BY ASSOCIATED PRESS

August 18, 2021 12:03 a.m.

Hong Kong police arrest 4 from university student union

HONG KONG (AP) — Four members of a Hong Kong university student union were arrested Wednesday for allegedly advocating terrorism by paying tribute to a person who stabbed a police officer and then killed himself, police said.

July 25, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.

July 24, 2021 12:09 a.m.

For South Sudan mothers, COVID-19 shook a fragile foundation

JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Paska Itwari Beda knows hunger all too well. The young mother of five children — all of them under age 10 — sometimes survives on one bowl of porridge a day, and her entire family is lucky to scrape together a single daily meal, even with much of the money Beda makes cleaning offices going toward food. She goes to bed hungry in hopes her children won’t have to work or beg like many others in South Sudan, a country only a decade old and already ripped apart by civil war.