Former Tulsa Foster Care Worker Arrested For Child Porn

A man who helped foster parents and children is now jail, accused of distributing child porn. OSBI is investigating to determine if children in his care were victims.

Thursday, September 3rd 2015, 11:21 pm

By: News On 6


A man who helped foster parents and children is now jail, accused of distributing child porn.

Police said Timothy Cheatwood admitted to using his computer to download the porn.

Investigators said Cheatwood was a respite foster parent and worked with the Bair Foundation from September 2013 to May 2014.

The Department of Human Services said a respite foster parent watches the children of other foster parents to give them a break - sort of like a baby sitter.

Now, investigators want to find out if Cheatwood had sexual contact with any of the children in his care.

9/3/2015 Related Story: Former Tulsa Foster Care Provider Accused Of Sharing Child Porn Videos

Thursday, the windows were drawn at a Tulsa house and everything was quiet in the neighborhood, but Wednesday morning was a different story, as police arrested Cheatwood.

"Thank God they got the guy and, hopefully, there was no children harmed," said neighbor Katie Hull.

Cheatwood is accused of distributing child pornography and violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.

Last month, agents started investigating a network that people use to share child porn and followed an IP address they said led back to Cheatwood.

Jessica Brown with OSBI said, "We do these often, and one month is about as quick a turnaround we can do. Often times it takes longer than that because of all the search warrants we have to obtain from the courts."

For nearly a year, DHS said Cheatwood served as a respite foster parent.

Under DHS rules, just like full-time foster parents, respite parents undergo extensive background checks, and anyone with a criminal history, including sex crimes, aren't approved.

"We know he had contact with these children. We are hoping nothing occurred there, but we are certainly suspicious about it, and we want to talk to the kids and parents of these children to make sure nothing happened," Brown said.

Katie Hull lives up the street from where Cheatwood was arrested. She said the day of the arrest she saw Cheatwood mowing his lawn, then, shortly after that she saw hordes of unmarked police cars.

She said it's shocking to know someone accused of such a horrible crime was arrested in her neighborhood, but she's impressed with how fast police work.

Hull said, "They follow through and they do get justice, you just have to believe in it."

According to DHS, Cheatwood's stint as a foster parent was short.

We reached out to the foundation Cheatwood worked under, but haven't been told why his paperwork with the agency was closed after serving less than a year.

Investigators are asking foster parents who used Cheatwood to care for their foster children to please call the OSBI.

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