Attorney for former 4-H center director responds to latest charges

Following the October 27 announcement of additional possession of child pornography charges, the former director of the Wahsega 4-H Center in Lumpkin County is maintaining his innocence.

 

Catherine Bernard, 48-year-old Paul Travis Williams' attorney, said he remains confident the investigation will reveal that he is not responsible for or connected to the images described by law enforcement.

 

Bernard called Williams' second arrest unnecessary, saying officers had not conducted additional searches and had been in possession of everything they seized in September.  

 

A news release from the Lumpkin County Sheriff's Office on the 27th indicated that since the original October 12 arrest, digital forensic investigators with UGA Police discovered thousands of images and videos of child pornography on Williams' storage devices.

 

Meantime, Bernard said Williams has complied with all instructions and conditions from the court and law enforcement since being granted bond the first time.

 

"Several sheriff's deputies were present at the bond hearing, and made no objection to the judge granting Travis bond as well as express permission to reside with his family in Hawkinsville," Bernard wrote in a statement to AccessWDUN.

 

Also, she alleges the lead investigator, in informing Williams of the first warrant on October 11, "specifically volunteered a promise that he wasn't going to 'play the game' of having Travis re-arrested on new warrants for the same charge as the investigation continued," Bernard stated.

 

"By starting that cycle again, it appears that the sheriff's office is attempting to try this case in the media before even making any evidence available to a grand jury or to Travis and his counsel," she added.

 

In the October 27 statement, the sheriff's office stated that forensic investigators are confident the images discovered are not recent and were not generated at the 4-H center or in Williams' residence there. It goes on to state that authorities don't believe any of the images involved 4-H campers.