On Thursday, December 16, 1999, a federal court jury convicted former Walt
Disney Internet executive, 34-year-old Patrick Naughton, of possessing
child pornography, but deadlocked on charges that he crossed state lines
seeking sex with a "13-year-old girl" which he arranged via the Internet.
Naughton's lawyers asked that he remain free on bail awaiting an appeal,
however the request was denied due to the fact that federal law requires
persons convicted of crimes of violence to be jailed upon waiting for an
appeal. Therefore due to the nature of the conviction, Naughton was taken
into custody by U.S. Marshals immediately after the verdicts were read. The
former head of Disney's Go Network, had testified that his on-line chats
with an FBI agent posing as the girl named Kris in the "dad&daughtersex"
chat room were fantasy role-playing and that he assumed his conversation
partner was a much older woman. Naughton claims that the pictures of naked
children found in his computer were sent to him without his knowledge. The
original arrest took place on September 16, 1999 at the Santa Monica pier,
where Naughton had arranged a rendezvous with "Kris" after flying to
Burbank from Seattle to attend a meeting at Disney headquarters. He could
face a possible ten years in prison at his sentencing hearing on Sunday,
March 5, 2000.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
