FORT SMITH — 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 $4,000 in 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.
The Johnson County sheriff’s office began investigating Bates in June 2011 after a woman reported finding several sexually explicit photographs of a 7-year-old girl on Bates’ cell phone. Investigators later found more photos on a home computer Bates owned.
Under questioning, the girl said Bates took pictures of her nude in a bathtub and on a bed on two different occasions in 2011.
Arkansas, Pages 22 on 12/23/2012