Adam Stafford King

Adam Stafford King, the Elburn veterinarian charged with possessing child pornography, has filed a 32-page brief in federal court seeking the overturn of a federal judge’s decision to hold him in pre-trial detention. 

King, 39, was arrested March 22 at his home in Elburn after an investigation allegedly found that he had sent sexually explicit images and videos of children being sexually abused to a man in New York. A criminal complaint filed in federal court also alleges that King told the same person that he planned to sexually abuse his newborn son when he returned home with him from California, where the surrogate mother lives.  

King has been incarcerated at the Chicago Metropolitan Correctional Center since his arrest. He has a status hearing on Thursday, May 9, during which Judge LaShonda Hunt will hear oral arguments from both sides regarding King’s potential release. 

In preparation for the hearing, Hunt ordered the prosecution to file a response to attorney Jonathon Bedi’s motion by Monday, May 6. That response was not available as of press time. 

In his brief, Bedi argues that Judge Keri Holleb relied on supposed facts not included in the one-count criminal complaint filed against King in ordering his detention as a flight risk and a danger to the community.  

Bedi alleges, among other things, that the government responded to his motion to release King “with unspecified and unreasoned concerns,” and that prosecutors’ response to his motion “relied almost exclusively on its own allegations.” 

He said the magistrate “gave too much weight to uncharged, uncorroborated and untrue conduct.” 

He further argued that he had in fact “showed that there are conditions of release that can assure community safety,” and that the judge erred in relying on what he called the government’s “misleading and applicable cases.” 

At King’s detention hearing, prosecutors called the evidence against him “extremely compelling,” and the “nature and circumstances of the offense charged … heinous.” 

They went into explicit detail regarding the nature and circumstances of King’s alleged behavior. While King has not been formally charged with the sexual abuse of a minor, prosecutors focused heavily on online statements that say King made indicating that he has a history of such abuse, including his claim in one email that he had raped a 4-year-old boy, and “had previously drugged and sexually abused his nieces and nephews.”  

Prosecutors say that in another message, sent from his email address “pervchidude,” King told who he believed was a man in New York, but who in fact was a covert law enforcement officer, that he was anticipating the arrival of his infant son from a surrogate in California and that “I plan on (molesting) him asap.” 

However, Bedi argues, there was little or no evidence presented at the hearing proving that King actually did any of the things he talked about in his emails, and that a single charge of material constituting/containing child pornography is not sufficient to bar King’s release with conditions designed to keep the community safe, assure that he cannot flee, and he cannot use the internet.  

“Other district courts have released similarly situated defendants with more serious charges,” Bedi wrote.