Kevin Dale Etherington
(PCSD file photo)
Patti Weaver
(Stillwater, Okla.) — Former Payne and Logan County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Etherington, who has been accused of possessing more than 100 videos or images of child pornography, is seeking a reduction of his $500,000 bail, court records show.
Tulsa County District Attorney Steve Kunzweiler was appointed by the Oklahoma Attorney General to prosecute Etherington, who was charged in Payne County on Nov. 30 with two counts of possessing child pornography.
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.
The former Payne County prosecutor filed a motion through his Oklahoma City attorneys, Joan L. Lopez and Michael S. Johnson, on Dec. 6 to reduce his bail, but it apparently was not heard at Etherington’s appearance on Dec. 8 in Chandler before Special District Judge Emily Mueller of Pottawatomie County.
Etherington was ordered to return to court on Jan. 19, 2023, for a pre-preliminary hearing before Judge Mueller in Chandler. According to the defense motion for a bail reduction, Etherington is now being held in the Moss Detention Center in Tulsa.
Payne County Undersheriff Marvin Noyes was unavailable for comment regarding when Etherington was transferred from the Payne County Jail to the Tulsa County Jail.
According to the defense motion for a bail reduction, 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.)”
Etherington, 53, of Stillwater, 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.
Etherington, a licensed attorney, “was last employed by the Payne County District Attorney’s Office as an assistant district attorney,” the motion noted. “His previous employment includes the private practice of law and an assistant district attorney in Oklahoma County. Upon being granted a reasonable bail, he may resume private practice or assist private law practitioners,” the defense motion said.
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 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 Child Unit for possession of child pornography.
According to an affidavit by OSBI Lt. Nicholas Rizzi, on July 26 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.
If convicted of aggravated possession of over 100 images of child pornography on Nov. 28, Etherington could be given a maximum penalty of a life prison term plus sex offender registration. If convicted of a separate count of possessing child pornography between July 23 and July 24 by allegedly knowingly possessing on his Google drive a video of an adult raping a 6-year-old or 7-year-old girl, Etherington could be given a maximum penalty of a 20-year prison term.
The two-count child pornography possession charge filed against the former Payne County prosecutor listed 12 employees of the OSBI as witnesses for the prosecution.
