Child Pornography Suspect Seeks Plea Deal

A man facing a pornography charge is ready to take care of his case, without a trial. David Abston was indicted on three counts of possessing sexually explicit photos of minors on his home computer.

Monday, February 5th 2007, 9:22 pm

By: News On 6

A man facing a pornography charge is ready to take care of his case, without a trial. David Abston was indicted on three counts of possessing sexually explicit photos of minors on his home computer. Abston says heâ€™s ready to take responsibility for what he's done. News on 6 crime reporter Lori Fullbright reports on four new motions filed in federal court.

Abston's attorneyâ€™s are asking for one charge to be dropped, say Abston is willing to accept a finding of guilty and are arguing against the government's right to seize his home.

Police say David Abston was a man with money, who owned and sold a skating rink in Broken Arrow and lived in South Tulsa. After his federal child pornography charge, Abston didn't show up for court. Bixby officers arrested him at a Bixby movie theatre 24 hours later.

Abston originally faced one count of distributing three sexually explicit photos on his computer. Count two charges Abston with possessing 800 sexually explicit photos of minors and count three accuses him of possessing 200 sexually explicit photos of minors. Abston's attorney asked the judge to drop either count two or count three. He argues it's the same offense and punishing Abston twice for the same offense, is double jeopardy. He says Abston is willing to plead no contest to having the photos, but Abston cannot plead guilty because that could impact any state charges that might be filed. The motion says Abston doesn't wish to contest whether he's committed the crimes he's accused of, but that he very much contests whether his home, Xbox games and other property should be seized by the government.

The law allows the government to take property connected to certain crimes, including child pornography. Abston says he's willing to let his computer be forfeited, since it's connected to the crime, but argues the house and three Xboxes have no connection to the charges filed.

Abston's attorney told the News on 6 Monday that Abston is willing to accept responsibility for what he did, but does not want to accept responsibility for things he didn't do. The U.S. attorney's office told us it will file its responses to these motions in court, rather than give us a comment.

Tulsa police say they've had around two dozen boys accuse Abston of molesting them, when they were minors, at his home over a period of years. Some are as young as 10, others are now in their 30's. Detectives sent that information to the Tulsa County District Attorney's office before Christmas. The DA has not filed any charges against Abston at this time.

If Abston pleads no contest to the federal charges, it will be a finding of guilty, without him admitting guilt.