Police found officer guilty of molestation

<p>A former Eatonton police officer has been sentenced to prison after he was convicted of child molestation and sexual exploitation of children.</p><p>A Putnam County jury deliberated about an hour Sunday before finding Darrell Sanders, 44, guilty on one child-molestation count and three sexual-exploitation charges, special assistant district attorney Dawn Baskin said. Sanders was sentenced to 20 years in prison for each charge, she said.</p><p>The investigation began last October when a 14-year-old girl told Putnam sheriff's investigators that an Eatonton police officer had been "engaged in inappropriate behavior," Baskin said Sunday.</p><p>Baskin said the girl implicated Darrell Sanders and his wife Jennifer Sanders. Jennifer Sanders, 31, pleaded guilty this summer to child molestation.</p><p>The girl who made the initial complaint said nude photographs had been taken of her after she'd been given alcohol and marijuana at Darrell Sanders' house. The girl, and others who testified against Sanders, were friends of Sanders' daughter, Baskin said.</p><p>A search of the Sanders' home and two cars turned up a laptop computer, on which nude pictures of children were found.</p><p>Baskin said Darrell Sanders denied involvement in the crimes and testified in his own defense at trial.</p><p>He had been an Eatonton police officer for about five years, and once worked for the Georgia Department of Corrections.</p><p>___</p><p>HASH(0x1d007bc)</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2006/8/118033