When Alabama Democratic Senate candidate Doug Jones said Tuesday that he “damn sure” did his job “to ensure that men who hurt little girls should go to jail,” he wasn’t bluffing. A quick Nexis search of his years working as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001 turned up at least a dozen instances in which Jones worked to put men accused of exploiting children behind bars.
Here’s the list:
1. Calvin M. Cook Jr., 52, Birmingham News, Sept. 10, 1999
A Birmingham man accused of using the Internet to entice a minor into having sex with him was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison without parole.
Calvin M. Cook Jr., 52, communicated for five months with a person he believed to be a 14-year-old-girl. He tried to persuade her to go to Chicago with him and have sex, said U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
Jones said Cook also possessed hundreds of images of child pornography, including pictures of children having sex with adults.
2. Daniel A. Covington, 43, Birmingham News, Sept. 9, 1999
Daniel A. Covington, 43, is accused of one count of child pornography possession and eight counts of distributing pornographic material over the Internet, said U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
Covington is also accused of one count of criminal forfeiture after U.S. Customs agents seized computer-related equipment from his home in March, Jones said.
Covington pleaded guilty to all nine counts.
3. Timothy Craig Mefford, 41, The Associated Press, Aug. 24, 1999
A federal indictment accuses a Huntsville man of transporting a Tennessee youth to Alabama to make pornographic films.
U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said Timothy Craig Mefford, 41, was charged Monday with six counts of production of child pornography and two counts of transportation of a minor across state lines for illegal sexual acts.
*We were unable to locate the outcome of this indictment.
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The list continues below.
4. John E. Starbuck, 54; The Associated Press, Aug. 3, 1999
John E. Starbuck, 54, of Mountain Brook, was indicted on charges of using a computer online service to persuade an individual he thought to be a 14-year-old boy to meet him for sexual acts, U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said in a news release.
The indictment alleges the computer conversations began May 24 and continued until the end of June, when Starbuck went to a park to meet the "boy."
Starbuck pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 16 months in prison.
5. David Edward Suggs, 28, The Associated Press, Aug. 3, 1999
David Edward Suggs, 28, of Anniston, was indicted in federal court in Birmingham on child pornography charges and on charges of using the Internet to solicit an individual he thought to be a 14-year-old girl to meet him for sexual acts, Jones said. Suggs was indicted on charges of attempted production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
Suggs pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
6. Christopher Scott Benefield, 29, The Associated Press, Aug. 3, 1999
Christopher Scott Benefield, 29, of Guntersville, was indicted on charges of receiving child pornography through the mail. Jones said Benefield is accused of receiving a videotape of a child engaging in explicit conduct.
*We were unable to locate the outcome of this indictment.
7. John Lambert Beukman, 39, Birmingham News, Dec. 6, 1998
Senior U.S. District Judge Robert B. Propst sentenced John Lambert Beukman of San Antonio to 21 months in prison without parole, U.S. Attorney Doug Jones said.
Beukman pleaded guilty Sept. 24 to receiving child pornography and mailing obscene material through the U.S. mail while he was living temporarily in Birmingham.
8. Willie A. Tillmon, 41, Birmingham News, Dec. 6, 1998
In a separate case, Propst will sentence Willie A. Tillmon of Belleville, Ill., on similar child pornography charges.
Tillmon, 41, pleaded guilty to three counts of transmitting child pornography over the Internet from Illinois to Birmingham. He also pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to entice a child to engage in a sexual act. Jones said Tillmon used an on-line computer service in June and July 1998 to entice what he thought was a 14-year-girl to meet him in a Birmingham hotel and engage in sex.
9. Robert Edward Bedford, 23, Birmingham News, July 18, 1998
Robert Edward Bedford, 23, was convicted on one count of using a computer online service to send child pornography and two counts of using the service to solicit a child to engage in sexual acts, according to a press release from U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
Bedford pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than three years in prison.
10. Steven Michael Quick, 30, Birmingham News, May 1, 1998
The grand jury indicted 30-year-old Steven Michael Quick of Pinson on a charge he possessed 11 images of child pornography, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Doug Jones.
Jones said Quick was charged with one count of knowingly possessing material that contained three or more images of child pornography.
Quick pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
11. Gordon Norman Cagle, 45, Birmingham News, May 1, 1998
The grand jury also indicted 45-year-old Gordon Norman Cagle of Trussville on a charge that he knowingly possessed 27 images of child pornography.
The indictment also charged that Cagle possessed three or more items that depicted a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, Jones said Thursday.
*We were unable to locate the outcome of this indictment.
The list isn’t exhaustive—those are just the stories that turned up after a few simple searches. For instance, they excluded the following story, which we verified as valid but didn’t turn up in our Nexis search of Jones’ name.
12. Lewis Dean Powell, Birmingham News, April 15, 1998
Lewis Dean Powell has lived two lives: one as a highly regarded school administrator and the other as a predatory pedophile, a federal judge said Tuesday.
U.S. District Judge Sharon Lovelace Blackburn quoted from letters Powell's former co-workers at Mountain Brook High School sent that consistently described him as caring, dedicated, hard-working and compassionate.
Then she sentenced Powell, 56, to more than five years in prison on his guilty pleas to using an online computer service to solicit sex from minors. She also fined him $75,000.
We were alerted to that story by the following tweet thread:
