Jana Bradford claimed a tough-on-crime record in her successful campaign for Prosecuting Attorney in the Ninth Judicial District in Arkansas. That may be true, so long as the criminal is not her uncle, instead she spent years using her influence to help him evade justice again and again.
When her uncle Barry Walker’s home was searched in June 2022, authorities found over 400 homemade videos of Child Sexual Abuse Material that showed Walker raping children as well as thousands of images and videos of CSAM. The videos go back 25 years and involve child from ages 2 to 14. One victim in the films was a 4-year-old girl Bradford had disputed when a prosecutor in a neighboring county sought to prosecute Walker. Walker pleaded guilty to over 100 felony counts involving raping or molesting 31 children, some several times. He got 39 life sententes, 1710 years, with no chance of parole.
But how was he able to abuse children for 25 years despite children coming forward to authorities? His girlfriend and another niece have been charged with felonies for allowing child sex abuse. His brother is charged with failure to report. Bradford has not been charged yet but an investigation is underway.
The first child to report Walker was just 8 years old. That was in 1999. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 5 years but released after 1.5 years for “good behavior.” He ignore the part of the sentence requiring him to avoid being alone with children. In 2004, a 3-year-old complained that he had touched her inappropriately. More girls came forward in 2006, 2010, and 2014. The case in 2014 involved a 4-year-old girl. None of these reports led to charges against him. The explanation for that is in sealed records.
Bradford wrote a letter to the prosecutor for the 2014 accusation accusing the 4 year old of repeating a story her parents made up, claiming Walker passed a lie detector test, and claiming Walker had never been alone with her. The letter worked and the prosecutor did not charge Walker.
In 2018, despite her knowledge of these accusations and reports to authorities, she wrote an application to get his name removed from the sex offender list. This is the letter here.
- Arkansas Democrat Gazette: Prosecuting attorney named as defendant in civil suit involving her uncle, a convicted child sex offender
- NBC: How a rural Arkansas prosecutor advocated for her pedophile uncle
May 26, 2023
