It’s the worst story you’ll read today or maybe this month. A pedophile predator named Barry Walker abused at least 30 children over more than two decades. His niece Jana Bradford was a local prosecutor who allegedly used her legal skills to protect him from consequences. Bradford denies knowing anything about Walker’s ongoing crime spree against children and hasn’t been charged with any crimes, but there’s no doubt that she stood up to defend her uncle on several occasions after he’d been convicted of abuse.

In February 1999, Walker was a married Army veteran and ex-Air Force flight surgeon practicing medicine in Fort Smith, Arkansas, when an 8-year-old girl told her mother that “Dr. Walker had touched her in ways that made her feel uncomfortable,” according to charging papers…

A few months after he was charged with two felony counts of child sexual abuse, Walker’s wife divorced him. In March 2000, he pleaded no contest and was sentenced to five years in prison. Following his conviction, the state required Walker to register as sex offender and his medical license was revoked.

Walker served just under a year of his five year sentence and moved into a house near some neighbors who, according to a civil lawsuit, discussed the fact that he often seemed to be surrounded by young girls. Not surprisingly, there were many more allegations over the years that followed. But Bradford, his niece, made an effort to get clemency for her uncle on the 2000 conviction.

New claims of sex abuse surfaced against Walker in February 2004, when a 3-year-old girl reported he had abused her, prompting the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division to open an investigation, a state sex offender assessment report shows.

Six months later, in August 2004, court records show Bradford helped prepare Walker’s application to the governor seeking “executive clemency” for his 2000 child sex abuse conviction.

In 2014, Walker was accused of abusing a 4-year-old girl.

Walker was arrested and booked into jail later that year, court and police records show. Bradford and other family members posted his $25,000 bond, hired a lawyer for him, paid his employees and kept his business running, the lawsuit says. The state police division made a referral to charge Walker, but that referral was overturned on administrative appeal, records show…

In response to the 4-year-old’s claims in 2014, Bradford sent a letter disputing them to Blake Batson, then the top prosecutor in neighboring Clark County, where her uncle lived. In it, Bradford referred to a private polygraph test she had Walker take, accused the girl’s parents of concocting the claims and contended that Walker never had been alone with the girl.

Batson didn’t charge Walker in 2014.

Even after this, in 2018, Bradford sought to have her uncle’s name taken off the sex-offender registry. To do this she specifically had to argue that it had been more than 15 years since his conviction and he was no danger to anyone.

I don’t know where this leaves Bradford legally but she clearly knew about at least some of the subsequent allegations since she’d intervened to keep Walker from being charged. I don’t see how she can possibly claim ignorance at that point. I guess she could claim that she legitimately didn’t believe the allegations but that feels like willful blindness. According to the report, Bradford would not let her own children be left alone with her uncle.

Last year, family members learned that two more girls were making allegations against Walker. But they didn’t report those allegations apparently because they didn’t want it to become an issue as Bradford was in the middle of running for top prosecutor in the county. She won that race and a few weeks later her cousin Brandy Cox brought the new allegations against Walker to the state police.

A search warrant was prepared and investigators found a hard drive in horse trailer near Walker’s house that contained hundreds of images and videos of children. Last year he pleaded guilty to more than 100 felonies involving 31 children, but investigators suspect there are more victims out there who haven’t come forward or simply don’t remember the abuse. Walker is serving 39 life sentences.

Other members of the family are now facing charges. Brandy Cox admitted one of the girls had made an allegation about Walker 6-years earlier which she never reported. Cox continued to let the two girls stay over at Walker’s house. She has been charged with a felony for permitting sex abuse of a minor.

Walker’s brother worked for the school district and was charged with failure to report suspected abuse. And one of Walker’s employees has been accused by one of the victims of walking into a room while Walker was molesting her and never reporting it. The employees lawyer has denied his client knew anything about the abuse.

Here’s a local news report from last October. You may notice Walker has quite a bruise on his face as he’s brought to court. It’s not explained in the story but I suspect he’s not going to last long in prison without a lot of careful isolation from other convicts.