Dan Roark, 47, was awarded Officer of the Month six times during his career as a police officer in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee, United States. He joined the Knoxville Police Department in 2007.
Also in 2007, Roark met a woman living in Scott County, Virginia, USA and they began communicating on Yahoo. She has a child born in 2013.
On December 21, 2019, Roark reportedly gave $200 to the employees of a business in his district after learning that they would not be able to complete their Christmas shopping due to a lack of funds. For this, he was named Officer of the Month.
In October 2020, Roark last served on patrol. Federal agents found in his phone records that from July 2023 to October 2023, he sent messages to the Scott County woman he met in 2007, asking her for child sex abuse images.
According to investigators, Roark paid the woman for the images. On November 4, 2023, the Scott County Sheriff’s Office arrested her for producing child pornography and other crimes against children.
Investigators seized the woman’s phone. They discovered Roark’s number in text message threads.
On November 6, 2023, Roark was arrested by Homeland Security Investigations and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation personnel at the Public Safety Complex in Knoxville. He was federally charged with child pornography production.
Later that day, Roark made an initial appearance on the charge before Judge Jill E. McCook in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. The Knoxville Police Department suspended him after his arrest.
On November 9, 2023, Roark will attend a detention hearing. Until then, he will be kept in federal custody.
CONAN Daily 