Monster ex-Texas police officer handed three life sentences for disturbing crimes against kids
A former police officer in North Texas was ordered to serve three consecutive life sentences in prison after investigators found him in possession of over 300 videos and images of children being sexually abused, according to a statement from Johnson and Somerville Counties’ district attorney.Former Itasca Police Department Officer Daniel Joseph Bates was convicted Wednesday of possession of child pornography and online solicitation of a minor after a civilian set him up in an entrapment scheme, according to a statement District Attorney Timothy Good shared with Fox News Digital.Texas Rangers arrested Bates after an adult decoy posing as a 15-year-old girl alerted police that Bates was communicating with someone he believed to be a minor, according to the statement.The civilian alerted police to Bates’ communications with him, prompting Rangers to obtain a search warrant for his digital devices, and they allegedly found over 300 images of minor children being sexually abused, according to the statement.“The images and videos that had to be processed and presented to the jury are indescribable in the level of depravity they depict and the degree of deviance of the defendant who voluntarily possessed and viewed those types of images,” Good said in the statement.”“Daniel Bates disgraced his badge and violated his oath and became the monster that he was sworn to protect the community from.Our community is safer with Bates serving three consecutive life sentences.”Bates testified that the child pornography in his possession was part of a secret investigation he was conducting into human traffickers, but prosecutors disputed that.Bates was only a reserve police officer and, at the time of his arrest, was working highway construction security, according to authorities.“Bates was unable to substantiate his claims that he was conducting an official police investigation,” the statement read.
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