Former Hoover day care worker faces federal child porn charges in Montana

Published: Tuesday, December 21, 2010, 11:30 PM ??? Updated: Wednesday, December 22, 2010, 1:23 AM

A former worker at a Hoover day care has been charged with enticing a Montana boy to send sexually explicit images of himself over the Internet, according to federal court records.

An attorney for the parents of at least one child?at Bright Horizons day care on Riverchase Parkway said parents were "livid" and concerned about any contact the man may have had with their children.

Robert Shane Wilkins, 33, of Homewood, was arrested Thursday and charged in federal court in Montana with conspiracy to sexually exploit children, sexual exploitation of children, distribution of child pornography.

U.S. Magistrate Judge John E. Ott today ordered Wilkins, described as a day care worker who taught third-graders, to continue to be held in jail and ordered U.S. Marshals to transport him to Montana to face the charges.

Wilkins' attorney, Michael V. Rasmussen, responded to the charges.

"He (Wilkins) will be taken to Montana and answer the charges there," Rasmussen said "At this point the allegations concern pornography and not the actual sexual touching of a child. I don't expect there to be any charges concerning that," he said.

Wilkins and another man, Anthony Steven Rodriguez, of Georgia, are accused of both using a YouTube account with the user name "funandfreaky7," according to an FBI affidavit in the case. The men under that user name pretended to be a pre-teen girl.

A 10-year-old Helena, Montana, boy told law enforcement that he had received a friend request from "funandfreaky7" asking to be friends and sending him a video of a preteen girl exposing herself. The child made several sexually explicit videos of himself at "funandfreaky7's" request and sent them to "funandfreaky7," according to the FBI affidavit.

The mother of the boy had called law enforcement in Helena, Montana, on Dec. 6 to report the activity on her son's computer, according to an FBI agent's affidavit in the case.

Rodriguez, who is a convicted sex offender, also has been arrested and charged in the case.

A search of Wilkins' residence -- he lives with his parents -- resulted in the recovery of a computer "that the defendant admitted would contain child pornography," according to Ott's detention order.

Wilkins admitted to communicating with the child in Montana and also to working with Rodriquez to entice children to "self-produce" sexually explicit videos, according to Ott's order.

Ott noted at the bottom of one page of his order Tuesday that prosecutors referenced in the hearing that Wilkins "may have commented to Rodriguez about possibly having engaged in sexual contact with a neighborhood child." No evidence, however, was offered at the hearing about that allegation, according to Ott's order.

Eric Guster, an attorney representing at least one family who has a child at Bright Horizons day care on Riverchase Parkway, said that parents were notified by the day care about the arrest of Wilkins.

Wilkins was fired last week from that day care, Guster said.

Bright Horizons is a day care operated under contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Guster said. Employees of that insurance company use the day care for their children, he said.

Efforts to get comments from?Bright Horizons were not successful?Tuesday.

Bright Horizons officials met with parents Tuesday, Guster said. Parents are concerned about why Wilkins was working there and whether he may have videotaped or taken photographs of their children, or had any inappropriate contact with their children, he said.

"They (parents) are livid to think that their children were exposed to someone who has been accused of this type of activity," Guster said.

Peggy Sanford, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Birmingham, said federal authorities in Birmingham assisted Montana authorities in Wilkins' arrest. "We are looking into whether there were any violations of federal law here," she said.?

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Lawyer sought to be first federal public defender for north Alabama

Published: Friday, November 26, 2010, 5:30 AM

A federal appeals court is advertising to find a lawyer to become the first federal public defender to represent indigent clients in north Alabama.

People charged with federal crimes in the Northern District of Alabama who can't afford a lawyer are now appointed one from a group of attorneys called the Criminal Justice Act Panel. The district has been one of only four court districts nationwide that doesn't have some form of a public defender office to represent indigent clients.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit Applications began accepting applications for the public defender several weeks ago. That person will lead a 14-member staff of attorneys, administrative employees and other support personnel with offices in Birmingham and Huntsville.

Deadline for applying for the $139,950 a year job is Dec. 17.

"We were happy to learn that the 11th Circuit has begun the process of advertising for the federal public defender for the Northern District of Alabama," said Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn.

Creation of the Federal Public Defender Organization was approved late last year in a unanimous vote of the district's federal judges. Blackburn said judges also are grateful for the support of the state's two U.S. senators and congressmen within the northern district.

James P. Gerstenlauer, circuit executive for the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, said he would not expect the public defender to be chosen before the middle of next year. After the application deadline next month, a committee of judges and lawyers will review and interview candidates, he said.

The federal public defender will hire the assistant federal defenders and other staff members for both the Birmingham and Huntsville federal defender offices, Blackburn said.

Birmingham attorney Brett M. Bloomston is one several attorneys on the CJA Panel available for appointment to indigent cases in the Northern District of Alabama. He also is on an administrative committee that acts as a liaison between the panel of attorneys and the court.

Initially some attorneys opposed the creation of a federal public defenders office, Bloomston said. He said there was a don't fix it if it isn't broken mentality. "We just weren't satisfied there was a need for it," he said.

But it's a decision that has been made and "we'll live with it," Bloomston said.

Despite the public defender's office, there will still be a need for the panel of attorneys because the public defenders office likely won't be able to handle the entire workload, Bloomston and others said. Also, there will be times when conflicts of interest within the public defenders office, may require the use of other lawyers.

"We will continue to be utilized," Bloomston said.

Blackburn estimated that the attorneys will still be getting at least 25 percent "and likely more" of the court-appointed cases.

"We are confident that a federal public defender along with the excellent lawyers on our Criminal Justice Act Panel will provide the best possible representation for indigent defendants in the Northern District of Alabama," Blackburn said.

Join the conversation by clicking to comment or e-mail Faulk at kfaulk@bhamnews.com.

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Jury continues deliberations in federal bribery trial of Tuscaloosa contractor

Published: Monday, November 08, 2010, 8:45 PM

TUSCALOOSA -- Jurors will return Tuesday to continue deliberations in the federal bribery trial of Tuscaloosa contractor Roger Taylor.

Jurors began deliberations this afternoon after hearing final arguments in the trial that began Oct. 25.

Taylor is charged with bribing former Alabama two-year college chancellor Roy Johnson by paying $92,286 for appliances, doors and windows, and some contractor
costs on a house Johnson built in 2004 in Opelika. Taylor's firm, Hall-Taylor
Construction, got contracts for managing construction projects at two-year
colleges during Johnson's tenure as chancellor.

Taylor said the payments were a loan. He faces one count of conspiracy, five counts of bribery, and two counts of obstruction of justice.

Before leaving today, jurors asked Chief U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace
Blackburn three questions.

One question was why Joanne Jordan, a former interim president of Southern Union
State Community College, and Jimmie Clements, a long-time friend of Johnson who
had contracts with the two-year college system, did not testify. Both Jordan and
Clements names were mentioned in Taylor's trial.

Jordan was sentenced to two years' probation after pleading guilty to state
charges in the two-year scandal. Clements faces state charges in connection with
the two-year college probe.

Blackburn told jurors that they were to consider the evidence and they should not speculate what any person who has not testified would say.

Jurors also asked was the fact that there had been 15 indictments before Taylor mentioned in court, and whether they had access to Johnson's grand jury testimony. Blackburn told them "no" to both questions.

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