The federal jury trial of a former Little Rock police officer facing felony child pornography charges has been delayed until the fall.
A grand jury indictment handed up in March 2020 charged then-officer Eddie Scott Seaton with one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Seaton, 54, is a resident of Cabot. Authorities searched his residence and seized devices during a raid Dec. 30, 2019, police said at the time of his arrest in March 2020. Seaton pleaded innocent to the charges.
He was released to home confinement a few days later but was barred from accessing the internet and ordered to wear an electronic monitor, per the decision of Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Thomas Ray. At the pretrial detention hearing, a Little Rock police detective testified that a search of Seaton's desktop computer identified tens of thousands of images depicting child pornography or erotica.
The jury trial in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas was scheduled to begin today. However, Seaton's attorneys filed a motion for continuance earlier this month that asked for the delay.
The motion filed Jan. 5 cited ongoing negotiations with federal prosecutors and the fact that Seaton's wife will be subpoenaed, should the case go to trial.
"The Defendant's wife has extensive health issues. She currently has a tracheostomy and is on Immunosuppressive drugs," Seaton's attorneys wrote. "She is also unvaccinated against Covid-19 due [to] her doctor's orders not to take the vaccine due to complications it can cause her in her current immunosuppressed state."
Seaton's attorneys asked for a short trial delay "until the Covid-19 situation becomes less severe," and added that the U.S. attorney had no objection.
Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. granted the request in an order filed Tuesday that rescheduled the trial for 9:30 a.m. Sept. 26.
A prior administrative order from Marshall posted Jan. 4 allowed Eastern District judges to decide whether to postpone trials scheduled for January in light of the highly transmissible omicron variant. In-person hearings would be postponed unless a presiding judge determines them to be necessary, according to Marshall's order.
Seaton's attorney Robert Newcomb told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette by phone Wednesday that Seaton has been terminated by the Police Department.
Police records obtained by the Democrat-Gazette show Seaton was terminated in November 2020. Seaton had been placed on paid leave pending an internal investigation, a police spokesman said at the time of his arrest.
Seaton had worked for the department since 2007.
Newcomb said the firing has been appealed to the Little Rock Civil Service Commission, waiving any potential back pay if he is reinstated. Newcomb suggested Seaton may have a chance to get reinstated if acquitted.
"If he's convicted, it's a moot point," Newcomb said.
Seaton is also represented by attorney Degen Clow.
Information for this article was contributed by Grant Lancaster of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.