Lubbock, Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Federal Child Pornography Offense

Defendant is a Former Pastor at Local Church

March 26, 2010 - LUBBOCK, TX—Dean Richard Tarkington, 57, of Lubbock, Texas, pleaded guilty today before U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to one count of attempted possession of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney James T. Jacks, of the Northern District of Texas. He faces a maximum statutory sentence of 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and a lifetime of supervised release. Judge Cummings ordered a presentence report with sentencing to be scheduled after the completion of that report. Tarkington has been on pretrial bond since his arrest in December 2009.

According to plea documents filed in the case, Tarkington lived in Lubbock in 2009 and was employed as a pastor at a local church. For several years, Tarkington had secretly engaged in sex chat and phone sex with young women and teenaged girls on the Internet, and Tarkington continued that pattern of behavior when he moved to Lubbock. Tarkington engaged in the online sexual behavior both at home and at his office at the church.

On November 30, 2009, in the course of engaging in online sexual activity in a Yahoo! chat room named "married but looking," Tarkington met a person using the Yahoo! IDs "Angela Brook" and "brookangela99." Tarkington asked "Angela Brook" for her "real age and location," and "Angela Brook" replied that she was 15 years old, from Jackson, Mississippi. "Angela Brook" was actually an undercover law enforcement officer with the Louisiana State Police, who had also made similar contact with Tarkington, in the same Yahoo! chat room, posing as 16-year-old "sexyshangirl," from Louisiana, beginning on November 4, 2009.

During his initial chat with "Angela Brook" on November 30, 2009, after viewing images purporting to be of the girl, Tarkington told her that he would like to have sexual intercourse with her. Also in the course of the initial chat conversation with "Angela Brook," Tarkington used his computer's webcam to send her a video of his genitals, and Tarkington told her that he wanted to see nude pictures of her. After telling "Angela Brook" that he was a computer consultant, "Angela Brook" asked him if he could get her a computer. He advised that he would get her a computer if she would have sexual intercourse with him, and she would also first have to talk to him on the phone.

On December 2, 2009, an undercover female law enforcement agent in Monroe, Louisiana, posing as "Angela Brook," engaged Tarkington in a telephone conversation. During the sexually explicit conversation, Tarkington requested that "Angela Brook" produce, and send to him, visual depictions of her engaged in sexually explicit conduct. When engaging in this telephone conversation, Tarkington believed "Angela Brook" to be a 15-year-old girl.

On December 14, 2009, Tarkington again communicated with "Angela Brook" in the Yahoo! chat room, and made plans to chat again when she and her friend could be online together with him. Shortly after that, a federal search warrant was executed at Tarkington's church office. Tarkington ultimately admitted his involvement in engaging many young females, including several who were underage, in sex chat and phone sex over a period of several years. Tarkington consented to a search of his computer and informed law enforcement agents that he deleted most of the sexually explicit material he received from young women and teenaged girls, but that he also saved some of it on a Flickr account that he had on the Internet. Tarkington gave his consent to law enforcement agents to access his Flickr account, and download that material for use in their investigation.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice, to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

U.S. Attorney Jacks commended the investigative efforts of the Louisiana State Police, the Lubbock Police Department, and the FBI. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy of the Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Attorney’s Office.