A former Little Rock police officer was found guilty Thursday of possession and receipt of child pornography after a jury deliberated for nearly eight hours over two days following a day and a half of testimony in federal court.
Eddie Scott Seaton, 55, a 13-year veteran of the Little Rock Police Department, sat motionless, hands clenched and a stunned expression on his face, as the jury foreman read the two findings of guilt.
Seaton was indicted on the two counts in March 2020, about two months after investigators raided his Cabot home based on a tip from a North Dakota child sex crimes investigator who, on Dec. 11, 2019, downloaded a nine-and-a-half minute video containing child pornography over the Bit Torrent network from a computer IP address that was later traced to Seaton's home.
The following day, court records said, the investigator downloaded a second video and an image containing child porn from the same IP address. After determining the computer was located in the Little Rock metro area, Little Rock police were notified. After matching the IP address to Seaton's residence, investigators executed a search warrant at his home Dec. 30, 2019.
Seaton, who has been free on pre-trial release since he was indicted, will be sentenced later this year following completion of a pre-sentence report by the U.S. Probation Office in Little Rock.
At the conclusion of the trial, Chief U.S. District Judge D. Price Marshall Jr. ordered Seaton taken into custody by federal marshals to await sentencing.