(Editor’s note: The following article contains descriptions of graphic child sexual abuse material.)
STILLWATER — To conclude a three-day trial more than three years after his original arrest, a Payne County jury found former first Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington guilty of possessing child pornography Thursday.
After deliberating for less than 90 minutes, the jury found Etherington guilty on two counts:
- Aggravated possession of child pornography, a charge that carries a potential life sentence and is reserved for cases where more than 100 child sexual abuse materials, or CSAM, are found; and
- Possession of child pornography, which carries a potential 20 year sentence.
The jury recommended a 15-year sentence for count one and five years for count two. A sentencing hearing is set for 2 p.m. Friday, May 8. The announcement of the conviction drew little visible or vocal emotion in the courtroom, and Etherington was led to the entry of the Payne County Courthouse — where he once worked — by a deputy sheriff. He was not placed in handcuffs.
In a statement, Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler said the possession of CSAM is a “scourge on our culture.”
“Even more disturbing is that Kevin Etherington, a former Payne County prosecutor who clearly knew better, engaged in this awful crime,” Kunzweiler said. “This jury had to look at and watch terrible examples involving the sexual exploitation of children. Mr. Etherington deserves to serve every day of the 20 years [recommended] as punishment.”
Etherington joined District Attorney Laura Thomas’ offices in Payne and Logan counties after he was terminated from Oklahoma County in 2013 owing to revelations regarding a sexual relationship with a coworker that occurred while he was married to another coworker.
While he was tried in Payne County, the Tulsa County District Attorney’s Office was appointed to prosecute the case by the attorney general. Pottawatomie and Lincoln County District Court Judge John Canavan presided over the case because of Etherington’s ties to the Payne County legal system.
Jurors heard about how Etherington was arrested by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation in November 2022 after a search warrant was executed on his apartment. Precipitating the warrant were cyber tips from Google that CSAM had been uploaded to a Google Drive that was registered to an email associated with Etherington. The cyber tips included an IP address that corresponded to Etherington’s home location.
While the search warrant and seizure of numerous devices did not reveal CSAM, 153 photos and videos depicting child sexual abuse — including vaginal and anal rape of children identified in the file titles as 6 and 7 years old — were found in the Google Drive. His devices did reveal Google searches in July 2022, after the cyber tip was issued and he received notice that his account was suspended for “illegal activity.” In one search, Etherington inquired about how Google refers child pornography cases to law enforcement, as well as other related questions.
Tulsa County Assistant District Attorney Amy Dickens leveraged those searches to indicate Etherington’s knowledge that the drive contained CSAM.
Dickens brought up a folder in the drive titled “panties,” that contained photos of what she characterized as clearly children’s underwear because of their design. One of Etherington’s ex-girlfriends testified that she recognized the underwear as belonging to a child in her home because she recognized the carpet in a photo’s backdrop.
The drive also stored photos of pre-pubescent children’s crotches and buttocks. In an interview with law enforcement after the search warrant was executed, which was played in court, investigators asked Etherington why he had photos of “little girls’ underwear.”
“Is that against the law?” Etherington responded.
Lt. Nicholas Rizzi, one of the OSBI investigators interviewing Etherington, said he believed it indicated a sexual interest in children. When asked about clandestine photos of underage girls’ buttocks in the drive, Etherington admitted he is “interested in asses.”
Etherington’s defense attorney, Michael Johnson of Lopez & Johnson, said his client will appeal the conviction.
“It is scary that the state could actually pursue (…) it to a jury, much less prosecute with this small of evidence,” Johnson said before he left the courthouse. “Hopefully, the appellate courts will see it a little bit differently than 12 misinformed jurors.”
Throughout the trial, Johnson called into question the evidence linking Etherington to the upload of CSAM on a Google Drive account registered to his law firm’s email address. He suggested the account was compromised by numerous individuals, citing the number of IP addresses that accessed the account that went unidentified over the course of the investigation. Johnson repeatedly suggested, without naming names, that Etherington was being set up by “powerful enemies” he made throughout his career as a prosecutor and that the jury is “watching what happens” as a result.
“From the day this case came in, it ticked me off,” Johnson said.
He also vaguely suggested that the Payne County Sheriff’s Office was involved because one of the IP addresses that accessed the account was near its office.
In her closing statement, Dickens disputed that the IP addresses Johnson called into question indicated that the account had been compromised. She said the IP addresses are indicative of Etherington accessing the account from various locations and possibly using a VPN — which allows users to connect through other IP addresses, including ones tied to locations outside of the user’s actual location.
After describing Etherington’s attitude about the images as, “that is just a fetish, bro,” Dickens suggested that Johnson’s defense theory was reliant on redirecting jurors’ attention.
“Look over here,” she said sarcastically.
(Update: This article was updated at 9:55 p.m. Thursday, March 5, to remove reference to specific testimony involving a minor.)
