Lawsuit claims Pike Co. prosecutor did not report child rape crimes

Written By ApurbaDa February 24, 2023 Add Comment

PIKE COUNTY, Ark. – A Pike County Prosecutor is now at the center of a lawsuit against her, and it deals with a child rape case.

You might remember the Barry Walker case. He is a Glenwood man who was convicted in October of raping more than 30 children. He is spending the rest of his life behind bars as a result.

Texarkana Attorney, David Carter, said Jana Bradford is related to Barry Walker. She is the 9^th District West Prosecuting Attorney in Pike County.

Carter is representing 11 of Walker’s victims in a civil lawsuit that accuses several people of not reporting Walker’s crimes for decades.

"In this particular case, Mr. Walker may be the most prolific child rapist in Arkansas history,” Carter said. "It's just devastating in terms of the effects this has on children."

Carter said he specifically names Bradford in the suit as someone who not only did not report the crimes, but helped cover up them up,

"We named Mrs. Bradford not because she is a prosecuting attorney, but because she is someone who - within that inner circle - either knew or should have known that this abuse was going on,” Carter said.

The claims against Bradford date back to decades ago when she was a deputy prosecutor.

"Our complaint addresses the 2004 attempt to have Mr. Walker pardoned after his first conviction of sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl,” Carter said. “Later, that petition was filed in 2018 or so asking that Mr. Walker be removed from the sex offender registry which he had been on since 2000."

That petition was never ruled on by the courts.

Since that first conviction, Walker has been convicted again of raping more than 30 other children.

We reached out to Bradford’s office more than once this week for comment and never heard back.
We will update the story if we receive a response.

from KARK https://ift.tt/FBAOagN