Web sting sullies Dover-Foxcroft man’s name

DOVER-FOXCROFT – All it took were a number of clicks on a keyboard to destroy a Dover-Foxcroft man’s reputation.

Roy Crockett, 34, spent his younger years doing everything required to gain the respect of his elders, including community service projects through the Boy Scout organization which advanced him to the rank of Eagle Scout. Later, he married, had a family and went to work as a long-haul truck driver.

Then in September 2001, his life was significantly altered. Dover-Foxcroft police conducted a search of his home, seized a computer and subsequently charged Crockett with possession of sexually explicit materials in connection with an undercover sting investigation into a Texas-based child pornography business. Police found 149 images and 14 video files on his computer’s hard drive and evidence that Crockett’s Visa check card had been used for purchase of the material.

“It blew my mind when they came back and said they had hundreds of [pornographic] files on my computer,” Crockett said, during an interview this week.

Because Crockett provided evidence that he was not home when some of the purchases and downloads were made, the charge was dismissed by Piscataquis County District Attorney R. Christopher Almy. But the damage had been done.

The Department of Human Services ruled he was a possible threat to his children, the cold stares began, people would avoid him, and his children were affected. A friend of his daughter’s told her that she was not allowed in Crockett’s home even though he wasn’t home. “It hurts, it really hurts,” Crockett said.

Crockett said he had proclaimed his innocence from day one. “I have never ever wanted to get onto a child pornography Web site,” he said. He declined a plea bargain offered for a $1,000 fine and no jail term in exchange for a guilty plea.

After hiring an attorney, the pair began investigating the case on their own. Crockett said he recalled receiving some bills on his Visa in 1999 that he questioned to company officials. Those he managed to spot were removed by the company, but he feared someone had obtained his account number so he canceled the card, he explained.

Then Crockett and his attorney discovered that the first two dates on which the sexually explicit materials were purchased and downloaded, Crockett had fuel receipts signed by him that showed he was in Virginia. Crockett said he was innocent, but that left three other people who had access to his computer and his Visa card which was kept on a shelf above the computer. They included his now ex-wife and two distant relatives, who used to baby-sit his children. Although he is not positive who is responsible for the downloads and use of his card, he suspects the relatives.

“I have spent long hours on the road thinking how I could prove myself innocent and find out who did it,” Crockett said.

Detective Lt. Scott Arno of the Dover-Foxcroft Police Department said this week that he interviewed the relatives mentioned by Crockett, but they denied any connection.

Almy said the charge was made against Crockett because it was his computer. The case proceeded through the court, he said Tuesday, because of the information that illegal child pornography had been downloaded on Crockett’s computer. Since the state could not refute the information that showed Crockett out of state on two of the dates involved, the matter was dismissed, he said.

That dismissal, a welcome relief, came a few days before Crockett’s wedding to his new wife, Sandra.

If there are lessons to be learned, Crockett said it is that there are two sides to every story and people should guard their computers and their credit card information from everyone, including family members.

“I’ve always tried to be the best I could be, that’s what drove me to be an Eagle Scout, and then to have this destroy everything I worked for or tried to become is awful,” Crockett said. “I’d rather this was an armed robbery charge than this charge. This just ruins you.”