For years, a prosecutor in rural Arkansas rebuffed allegations involving her pedophile uncle, records show. Then, he was convicted of raping dozens of girls.
Bradford’s efforts to assist Walker have surfaced in recent months as part of a swirling scandal in the wake of what some legal observers describe as one of the worst pedophilia cases in Arkansas history.
Since his conviction in October, investigators have shifted their focus to Walker’s closest relatives and associates, amid allegations that they enabled Walker to keep preying on little girls for years. “You don’t rape this many girls this many times in a small Arkansas town unless someone is running interference for you,” said David Carter, a Texarkana lawyer representing at least 14 of the victims or their parents and guardians.
Walker did not respond to a letter sent to him in prison. His attorney in the civil case did not return a phone call. A few months after he was charged with two felony counts of child sexual abuse, Walker’s wife divorced him. In March 2000, he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to five years in prison. Following his conviction, the state required Walker to register as sex offender and his medical license was revoked.
Walker initially moved into a house within an enclave of homes along a wooded, gravel road just outside of town, where several of his relatives lived, records and interviews show. He started his own landscaping business about a year later and moved a few miles away, into an isolated rambler surrounded by pastures.
New claims of sex abuse surfaced against Walker in February 2004, when a 3-year-old girl reported he had abused her, prompting the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division to open an investigation, a state sex offender assessment report shows.to the governor seeking “executive clemency” for his 2000 child sex abuse conviction. In his application, Walker wrote: “I would like a second chance to be a fully productive citizen of this state and practice medicine again in rural Arkansas.
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