Kerry Pool, a lieutenant at the time. Dillard was charged with 907 counts of possessing visual or print material depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, possessing methamphetamine, possessing counterfeit cocaine, possessing drug paraphernalia, carrying a weapon, lacking proof of insurance and failing to pay automobile registration. Each pornography count resulted from a clipping of an explicit adult sex scene from a magazine. On each clipping, the faces of children, cut from other photographs, were pasted over the adult faces. Several of the collages contained the face of one particular child, and police believed Dillard knew at least one child whose face was used in the collages, Pool said.
State law requires that a defendant be tried within a year of being arrested.
In practice that does not always occur because delays sought by the defense are not counted. But in Dillard's case, Faulkner County Circuit Judge Ed Clawson found that the one-year limit was exceeded. After Dillard's arrest, the FBI was interested in prosecuting him on federal child pornography charges, Foster said. The Conway Police Department sent to the FBI the evidence officers found while searching Dillard's car, Foster said. Eventually, the FBI or the U.S. attorney's office decided not to prosecute Dillard because the collages do not show children having sex, Foster said.