A Pangburn man found himself in hot water Thursday in federal court after repeated violations of the terms of his pre-trial release agreement landed him in jail to await trial on a charge of attempted enticement of a minor.
Jon Dakota Heimeyer, 28, was arrested on Dec. 13 after a 3½-month FBI investigation during which Heimeyer is accused of communicating online with a person he is alleged to have believed was a 13-year-old girl for the purpose of having sex with her. In reality, he was communicating with an undercover FBI agent conducting a sting operation.
A complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Aaron Green contained transcripts of nine online conversations between the undercover agent and Heimeyer that took place between Sept. 3 and Dec. 13 that quickly became explicitly sexual in nature. Those conversations culminated in a planned meeting in Little Rock that resulted in Heimeyer's arrest.
On Dec. 15, U.S. Magistrate Judge Joe J. Volpe released Heimeyer to home detention with orders that he not access the internet. On Jan. 12, Heimeyer was back in court after being arrested for violating the terms of his release.
During that hearing, Heimeyer admitted to using the internet, but said it was necessary to pursue employment leads. Volpe allowed Heimeyer to remain free on bond but warned him any further violations would land him in jail.
The next day, during a home inspection, an Apple watch found in Heimeyer's possession was seized. Later that same day, the U.S. attorney's office filed a motion to revoke his pre-trial release.
At the outset of Thursday's detention hearing, Volpe indicated that more violations had occurred between the time the revocation motion was filed on Jan. 13 and Thursday morning's hearing. Heimeyer's attorney, Joseph Perry, did not contest the allegation regarding the Apple watch and said that he and his client were aware of the more recent allegations that had surfaced regarding unauthorized internet use.
The new allegations were based on screenshots taken from monitoring software installed on Heimeyer's computer on Jan. 14 that showed continued, unauthorized internet access. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant pointed out that despite Volpe's admonition that further violations would result in his incarceration, Heimeyer had continued to access the internet, apparently undeterred by the monitoring software.
"Within days of that, Mr. Heimeyer is accessing the internet," she said, adding that screenshots of communications Heimeyer had with his wife showed that she was complicit in assisting him in attempts to mislead the probation office.
Bryant said Heimeyer had accessed Facebook and other social media sites including one platform typically used to post pornographic material and a group chat app called "Discord" on which she said he used the screen name "DarkSwift92."
"That's the same username he used on KIK to converse with the undercover in this case where he went and met with what he was hoping to be a child," she said. "I think that Mr. Heimeyer has shown a blatant disregard for anything this court has told him to do. He was doing this within a week of being admonished by the court that essentially, this is his last shot."
Regarding the Apple watch, Perry acknowledged that while it was not authorized, it was an older model watch that required pairing to an Apple iPhone to be internet-capable.
"I think there's some dispute as to whether it was internet accessible but the issue is that Mr. Heimeyer said that it had been approved...when it had not," said Bryant. "Again, this was one day after he was released from this court."
As Perry began to explain to Volpe that the Apple watch in Heimeyer's possession was not internet capable and that Heimeyer's wife had tried to demonstrate that to the probation office, Volpe cut him off.
"Unfortunately, the Apple watch has now become a minor issue and we've got big issues now with the computer usage," he said. "I'm not going to revoke him on the Apple watch but you can address the other issues because that's the elephant in the room."
Perry maintained that the majority of internet usage Heimeyer had engaged in was for legitimate purposes, such as looking for work and arranging transportation to work, and that access to other websites was incidental.
"Who is the young lady in the braces?" Volpe asked, referring to a screenshot taken from Heimeyer's computer.
"She's a girl on Facebook that if you open up her Facebook page it has a link to the fans only or only fans, whichever website that is," Perry said.
"We've only hit the tip of what Mr. Heimeyer's going to do on the internet," Bryant countered. "I don't know how old that girl is but she does have braces, then there's a picture of her putting her leg up on the sink. It's going to go down a dark road, which it already has done previously."
Bryant said that despite location monitoring and computer monitoring, Heimeyer had continued to access the internet and that his wife, rather than trying to curb his behavior, had instead enabled it and covered for him.
"Judge," Perry interjected, "all I can say is they intended to get a house phone and to get rid of all their computers, that's the conversation I had with them. All computers."
"Well, it's too little too late, I think, Mr. Perry," Volpe said. "He's not likely to abide by any condition or combination of conditions that I impose."
Volpe ordered that Heimeyer be taken into custody by U.S. marshals to await trial. If convicted on the charge of attempted enticement of a minor, Heimeyer would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.