Former Pulaski County employee, political consultant distributed child porn, smoked meth in his office, federal agent says

Harold L. Moody Jr.
Harold L. Moody Jr.

Harold “H.L.” Moody, a former special events coordinator for Pulaski County Youth Services, distributed child pornography and smoked methamphetamine from a glass pipe while seated behind his county desk during regular work hours, a federal agent testified Friday.

That testimony and a federal prosecutor’s arguments that Moody is a sophisticated computer user who has had contact with other users across the globe led a federal magistrate judge to order the 37-year-old Little Rock man, who is also a Democratic political consultant, to remain in custody until his trial on charges of distribution of child pornography, for which he faces a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 15 years if convicted.

Moody was arrested the evening of Nov. 5 after agents executed a search warrant at his downtown Little Rock apartment and found both child pornography and two grams of methamphetamine, to which Moody says he is addicted and for which he said he planned to seek treatment after the Nov. 6 mid-term elections.

Moody was fired from his county job as a result of his arrest. He is a former chairman of the Pulaski County Democratic Party and a former communications director for the Democratic Party of Arkansas.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe Volpe said it was a “close call” whether to order Moody to an inpatient rehabilitation clinic or keep him detained, but a prosecutor convinced him Moody poses a risk of flight and is a potential danger to the community.

Read Saturday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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