Kevin Dale Etherington
(PCSD file photo)
By Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — Former Payne and Logan County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington has been ordered to stand trial on charges of possessing child pornography and illegally taking photos at the swimming pool of an apartment complex in Stillwater where he was living.
Etherington, 53, of Stillwater, was released from jail this week after his original bail of $500,000 was reduced to $200,000 last week. Etherington was ordered by a judge specially assigned to the case to appear before Pottawatomie County District Judge John Canavan for trial court arraignment on July 12.
Pottawatomie County judges were appointed by the presiding judge of the North Central Judicial Administrative District to hear the case against Etherington after the judges of Payne and Logan counties recused, pursuant to the Code of Judicial Conduct, court records show.
Following a preliminary hearing last week, Pottawatomie County Special District Judge Emily Mueller found that there was sufficient evidence to bind Etherington over for trial on child pornography charges and an additional count accusing him of being a peeping Tom.
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler had been appointed by the Oklahoma Attorney General to prosecute Etherington, who was represented at the May 4 preliminary hearing by defense attorneys Michael Johnson and Joan Lopez of Oklahoma City, court records show.
Etherington, who had been with the district attorney’s office here for eight years, prosecuted homicides in Payne and Logan counties until his arrest on Nov. 28, 2022, when he was fired by District Attorney Laura Austin Thomas, who expressed devastation in a news release that an attorney on her staff was arrested by the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation Internet Crimes Against Children Unit for possession of child pornography.
According to an affidavit by OSBI Lt. Nicholas Rizzi, on July 26, 2022, Google submitted a cyber tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children regarding 57 image files that depicted suspected child sexual abuse material.
“The suspect listed in the cyber tip was Kevin Etherington,” the affidavit alleged. “The report indicated that AT&T U-verse was the Internet Service Provider and the user was located in or around Stillwater, Oklahoma,” the affidavit alleged.
A search warrant was sent to Google for additional content from a Google account, the affidavit said. “A review of that data revealed that the subscriber was Kevin Etherington,” the affidavit alleged.
Lt. Rizzi “located 153 video and picture files that contained child sexual abuse material. A copy of Kevin Etherington’s 2019 and 2020 tax return was located within the Google drive account,” the affidavit alleged.
When a defense motion for a bail reduction was filed on Dec. 6, 2022, Etherington was being held at the Moss Detention Center in Tulsa, court records show.
Etherington has lived in Oklahoma since 1998 and has no intention of leaving the state, the motion said.
Etherington has a minor child in Oklahoma and a 22-year-old daughter in Texas; he does not have a passport and will not apply for one, his motion said.
“His previous employment includes the private practice of law and an assistant district attorney in Oklahoma County,” the motion said.
Etherington “has no criminal history except a misdemeanor driving under the influence approximately 15 years ago and a property crime which was dismissed (this arose after his divorce was finalized and he was retrieving his personal property from his former spouse,” the motion said.
An amended charge filed last week against the former prosecutor lists 37 witnesses for the state including 17 OSBI members and five employees of the Payne County District Attorney’s Office.
