Jury selection begins today in the trial of a former Little Rock police officer who was indicted in 2020 after federal investigators discovered more than 60,000 images of child pornography and child erotica on a home computer he owned.
Eddie Scott Seaton, 55, of Cabot, was charged in a March 2020 federal indictment with one count each of possession and receipt of child pornography following a Dec. 30, 2019, raid on his home after authorities investigating child sexual exploitation identified an internet protocol address that was registered to Seaton and tied to a download of child pornography earlier that month.
An analysis of Seaton's desktop computer identified more than 60,000 images of child pornography and erotica that authorities said Seaton had unsuccessfully attempted to erase from the device but were recovered through a technique known as file carving.
Additionally, law enforcement officers discovered handwritten stories on the desk next to Seaton's computer that a police investigator said described sex acts involving children that Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant, who, along with Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ray White, is prosecuting the case, called "very concerning."
During an interview with investigators, Seaton reportedly told officers that he was curious about bestiality and Japanese anime porn.
A 2007 veteran of the Little Rock Police Department, Seaton was placed on administrative leave from the department following his arrest on March 9, 2020, and police records obtained by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette show that he was terminated from the department the following November.
In a motion filed earlier this month protesting the government's intent to introduce the writings and more than 60,000 images of child erotica, Seaton's defense attorney John Wesley Hall Jr. of Little Rock posited that a man who was living in his car and often parked in Seaton's driveway, Kevin Michael Hicks, had used Seaton's Wi-Fi to download and distribute images of child pornography.
Hicks pleaded guilty before Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. in 2021 to one count of possession of child pornography and was sentenced to 84 months in federal prison.
Last week, Marshall, Bryant and White met to iron out evidentiary issues related to evidence the government plans to introduce during the trial and to establish some "rules of the road" as Marshall often describes his layout of the trial architecture.
"I find the issues challenging," Marshall said, "and I thought it would be helpful if we spend some time in the same room together talking about them."
At issue was the introduction of the handwritten stories and a number of deleted child erotica images recovered from Seaton's computer through a method known as file carving that he was not charged with.
"The United States has two theories," Marshall said. "One is that some or all of these things are intrinsic to one or the other of the charges and that secondly, it should come in as 404b evidence."
Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 404(b) says evidence of a person's character or character trait is not admissible to prove that on a particular occasion the person acted in accordance with the character or trait.
Bryant said that of the total number of images recovered from Seaton's computer, approximately 300 fit the legal definition of child pornography, with the bulk of images classified as child erotica.
"Our three issues were the writings, the other child pornography anime and then the child erotica," she said. "Whether those are intrinsic or come in under 404(b), I think those are the issues."
Hall said one theory about the images is that Seaton never knew they were there but that they were placed on the computer -- which he purchased second-hand -- by someone else. He said forensic analysis can likely prove when the computer hard drive was created and when the images were placed on the hard drive. But he said a big question regarding the metadata of the files would be if enough was recovered to provide other information such as when the deleted files were last opened.
"Yes, there's 61,000 images there but can you say if anybody ever saw those other than the person who put them there, let alone Mr. Seaton?" Hall asked. "I think the answer is going to be no."
According to a motion Hall filed earlier this month objecting to the the government's motion to introduce evidence of uncharged conduct under Rule 404(b), Seaton was never aware the computer contained the images in question but that they were put there by Hicks.
After lengthy discussion, Marshall ruled some of the writings discovered on Seaton's desk may be admitted, but not all.
"Given where they were located," Marshall said, "and to the extent they are substantially similar to what's depicted in the anime charged in count one, the United States has persuaded me that they are relevant to respond to the 'it was Hicks' defense."
Marshall ruled that only the written outlines that closely mirror the content of the three anime images outlined in Count One, the receipt count, may be introduced as intrinsic evidence.
"The unfair prejudice that would result if the whole batch came in," he said. "I think the tailoring of the writings will substantially diminish if not eliminate the unfair prejudice."
Marshall said he will provide a list of the writings that may be included after he has examined them further.
He also ruled that the thousands of images of child erotica would be excluded.
"The relevance is slight and I think the potential for unfair prejudice is large," Marshall said.
Regarding other anime images of child pornography that Seaton was not charged with, Marshall said he would allow the government to introduce those as evidence in the trial.
"Mr. Seaton has admitted in general terms that he searched for anime," he said. "Yet at the same time, he says as his defense the anime that was on his computer was not his but that instead either it came without his knowledge on the hard drive when he got the computer second-hand and it's a relic of either the construction or Mr. Hicks rooting around and doing things on the computer."
Seaton's trial begins this morning with a pretrial conference scheduled for 9:30 a.m. to be followed by jury selection and opening statements. Witness testimony is scheduled to begin Tuesday. The trial is expected to last three days.