KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — On Nov. 6, a Knoxville Police Department officer was arrested and charged with producing child porn with help from the victim's mother.
Dan Roark has been with KPD since 2007 and last served on patrol in Oct. 2020. His police powers were suspended and he is in federal custody. KPD also said the department's Office of Professional Standards also opened an administrative investigation.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, federal agents began investigating after authorities in Scott County, Virginia received an anonymous tip that a child was sending sex abuse material through the internet to other users.
The investigation led them to the child's mother. Investigators seized her phone, and that's when investigators discovered Roark's number in text message threads.
"Familial trafficking, sex trafficking, human trafficking happens right here in our own backyards," said Lisa Bolton, Director of Youth Services with Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking. "Most of the time, it is someone that the child knows and is a very relational crime. The trafficker will get to know the child."
That led agents to investigate Roark and look at his phone records from July to Oct. 2023. In those records, they said they found several messages of him asking the mother for child sex abuse materials, providing graphic examples of the conversations in the affidavit. Investigators said Roark paid the mother for the images.
On Nov. 4, the Scott County Sheriff's Office arrested the mother for producing child pornography and other crimes against children. She told investigators she had known Roark since 2007 after the two began communicating on Yahoo. At some point, she admitted Roark had asked for sex abuse pictures of her now 10-year-old child.
Pictures were taken when the child was as young as 5 years old.
"When it comes to familial trafficking, they're more likely to be younger," said Bolton. "Who has access to a younger kid? Typically, a family member."
A 2020 report from the Polaris Project said out of almost 2,500 victims across the U.S., around 42% were trafficked for sex by their own families. Around 39% were recruited by intimate partners or a marriage proposition.
"Despite the explosion of concern – some of it fueled by misinformation – about complex child sex trafficking schemes and kidnappings, data shows victims usually know and trust their traffickers," the report said.
Bolton also said that most often, the Community Coalition Against Human Trafficking sees mothers giving traffickers access to victims. According to the criminal complaint, the victim's mother texted Roark, "I hate to ask but can u help me until I get paid?" According to one text message exchange, the complaint also said Roark paid the victim's mother $200 in exchange for sexually explicit pictures and videos.
"Anyone who is in that familial role actually will sell the child for some kind of benefit. So, that could be money, that could be a substance, that can be to pay for rent or pay for food," said Bolton. "With the rise of technology, we're seeing more trafficking, more content is being created at a faster pace."