Faulkner Co. man arrested on 23 counts of child pornography

A Faulkner County man has been charged with 23 counts of possession of child pornography. 

Lt. Matt Rice of the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office said that new technology in use by investigators with FCSO and cooperating agencies led to the arrest of 33-year-old Michael A. Feathers of 81 Autumn Hills lane, a rural area a few miles southeast of Greenbrier.

“We’ve been tracking this guy and we executed a search warrant on his residence on Nov. 13,” Rice said.

According to a FCSO incident report, investigators were made aware of Feathers possible involvement with child pornography Oct. 13 through a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). According to the Rice, NCMEC was contacted by administrators of the social networking web site ning.com who reported that the site was being used to share alleged child pornography.

In October, a search warrant revealed 23 files containing alleged child pornography had been downloaded to a NetZero.com e-mail account, which after another search warrant revealed the IP address of the recipient of these files, alleged by authorities to be Feathers.

The reports states that five children depicted may be victims previously identified by NCMEC.

In executing the search warrant on Nov. 13, FCSO seized a computer, Zip storage device, 16 computer discs, an address book and notebook, a camera and roll of 35 millimeter film a .25 caliber “pocket pistol” and a pair of toddler-sized underpants.

“We’re assuming the worst as far as the underwear,” Rice said, though investigators were unsure if Feathers had directly or personally abused any children. 

According to the report, in e-mail communications found on the seized computer Feathers “makes several references to sexually abusing ... children.” The name of the e-mail account in question, as listed in the report, is also profane reference to child sexual abuse.

Feathers was arrested and booked into the Faulkner County Detention Center on Nov. 13. He was released on bond the next day, according to jail booking information.

Rice said that FCSO plans to continue to utilize the technology that resulted in Feathers’ arrest.

“In the past, we’ve kind of done them here and there, but we can do a lot more now,” he said.

(Staff writer Joe Lamb can be reached at 505-1238 or by E-mail at joe.lamb@thecabin.net. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit.)