Alaska News

Homeless man downloaded child pornography to office computer, police say

A homeless man is facing child pornography charges after he downloaded illegal pictures to a public computer Nov. 19 at a Haines tribal office, according to the charging document.

Randolph T. Williams Jr., 39, is accused of saving 11 sexually explicit images of children to a computer made available to members of the Chilkoot Indian Association, the charges said. Officials at the tribal office noticed Williams acting strangely at the computer, Haines Police Chief Gary Lowe wrote.

One witness saw him trying to hide pictures when people walked by, the charges said. When Williams left, the tribal administrator found suspicious photos in the computer's "recycle bin." Police later determined the photos were images of girls estimated to be 3 to 12 years old, according to the charges.

Police arrested Williams later that day at his mother's apartment, the charging document said.

Williams admitted using the computer but denied viewing child pornography, according to a police statement filed in court. Williams told police he is homeless and was temporarily staying with his mother. At the time of his arrest he was on probation for a theft conviction and other charges.

He faces 11 counts of possession of child pornography.

Chilkoot Indian Association is a federally recognized tribe representing about 490 people, said tribal administrator David Berry.

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Twitter updates: twitter.com/adn_kylehopkins. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or email him at khopkins@adn.com.

By KYLE HOPKINS

khopkins@adn.com

Kyle Hopkins

Kyle Hopkins is special projects editor of the Anchorage Daily News. He was the lead reporter on the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Lawless" project and is part of an ongoing collaboration between the ADN and ProPublica's Local Reporting Network. He joined the ADN in 2004 and was also an editor and investigative reporter at KTUU-TV. Email khopkins@adn.com

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