Arkansas prosecutor and married mother of two is charged with protecting her pedophile uncle
A rural Arkansas district attorney whose uncle is one of the state’s most dangerous pedophiles is accused of “actively protecting” him.
Jana Bradford, a 54-year-old married mother of two, is currently the state attorney for the 9th Judicial District West in Arkansas.
Her uncle, Barry Walker, 59, was arrested in June 2022 after hundreds of homemade videos were found of him raping girls aged two to 14 at his home in Glenwood, Arkansas.
Walker, a former Air Force flight surgeon, pleaded guilty to molesting at least 31 girls from 1997 and received multiple life sentences in October 2022.
His girlfriend, brother and another niece have been criminally charged with covering him up to varying degrees. They all live in the small town of 2,200 that Bradford represents as prosecutor.
Now the spotlight is on Bradford, who has spent 20 years trying to help her uncle with legal issues after his first child sexual abuse conviction, in 2000, and tried to clear his name.
Jana Bradford worked for 20 years to clear her uncle’s name and is now being named in a civil lawsuit alleging that she and other family members protected him to protect her election campaign for the local prosecutor.
Barry Walker has been described as one of the worst pedophiles Arkansas has ever known after hundreds of homemade videos of him raping girls ages two to fourteen were found at his home in Glenwood, Arkansas.
In 2004, Bradford helped her uncle file for a pardon. It was denied
A civil lawsuit has been filed over a cover-up organized by the Walker’s “inner circle,” including Bradford.
“You don’t rape that many girls in a small Arkansas town that often unless someone disturbs you,” said David Carter, a Texarkana attorney representing at least 14 of the victims or their parents and guardians.
The case alleges that Walker’s actions were covered up by family members to protect Bradford’s election campaign to become prosecutor.
She was elected in May 2022 – 16 days before her uncle’s home was finally raided.
Bradford has strongly denied doing anything to protect her uncle, insisting she was unaware he had sexually assaulted children after his initial conviction.
“Ms. Bradford denies in the most emphatic terms that she knew that Barry Walker was harassing children or that she did anything to cover up his depraved behavior,” her lawyer, Erin Casinelli, said.
“Since Ms. Bradford was not even aware of Barry Walker’s continued criminal acts, she certainly cannot be held responsible for his actions and the damage he has caused.”
Cassinelli said all allegations from the Bradford lawsuit are “absolutely false” and have not been verified or supported by actual evidence.
Bradford has not been charged with wrongdoing.
The special prosecutor overseeing Walker’s case and related matters, which was assigned in part due to Bradford’s conflict of interest, said a criminal investigation into “secondary targets” was still ongoing.
Walker was convicted in 2000 of two counts of child sexual abuse – assaulting an eight-year-old girl in the library of her childhood home, when Walker and his then-wife were invited to the house for dinner.
He was sentenced to five years in prison and his wife divorced him.
Walker served less than a year of his sentence and was released early for good behavior.
In 2004, Bradford helped him file for a pardon from Governor Mike Huckabee, arguing that he wanted to be allowed to practice medicine again. Huckabee refused.
As a condition of his release, Walker – who remained a convicted sex offender – was ordered to be accompanied in the presence of children at all times.
But according to the lawsuit, he blatantly broke the laws — and Bradford and others turned a blind eye.
The suit, obtained by NBC newsclaims that she and other family members regularly saw “prepubescent females” driving Barry’s truck around Glenwood, riding horses with Barry at the fairgrounds, hanging out at Barry’s house, and regularly spending the night’, but they did nothing to intervene.
Walker is seen in October 2022 and is given 39 life sentences without the possibility of parole
Bradford wrote a letter on Walker’s behalf in 2014 disputing allegations that he had molested a four-year-old girl. Charges were dropped
According to the lawsuit, Bradford and at least two of Walker’s siblings discussed “how strange it was that Barry always had young girls around him” at weekly family gatherings, despite being a registered sex offender.
He faced multiple charges and yet remained free.
He was charged with child molestation in 2004, 2006, 2010 and in 2014, according to the police and sex offenders assessment report.
In 2014, after a four-year-old girl accused him of sexually assaulting her, Walker was arrested and jailed.
Bradford and other family members posted his $25,000 bail, hired him a lawyer, paid his employees and kept his construction business afloat, the lawsuit said.
Bradford, as a private attorney, wrote a letter to the prosecution arguing his case.
Charges were dropped.
In 2018, Bradford wrote to ask to have her uncle removed from the sex offender registry.
Cassinelli, her attorney, said the letters were sent “in her capacity as a private attorney” and “contain routine matters handled by attorneys for clients in jurisdictions across the country.”
Bradford tried to have her uncle off the sex offender registry in 2018
“There is no basis to suggest that that made her responsible for the actions of another person,” he added.
Carter, the attorney representing victims in the civil suit, claims Bradford was aware of several reports of sexual abuse against her uncle over the years.
“She actively worked to protect her uncle from these claims, even when she was deputy prosecutor,” he said.
The case notes that Bradford wrote in her 2018 letter that her uncle was not dangerous.
According to the lawsuit, the line “may be the most erroneous statement ever made in a legal filing in the state of Arkansas.”