Blake R. Johnson - Repeat Sex Offender

A Bentonville man is in the Benton County Jail after police found child pornography on a computer.

In early January, the Bentonville Police Department received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children concerning two video clips depicting child sexual abuse, according to a news release from the Bentonville Police Department.

According to the tip, someone using a computer traced to 10860 Easy St., near the Talamore subdivision, uploaded two video clips to the Internet filing-sharing site badongo. com, which captured the videos and made the tip report. That address is the home of Blake R. Johnson's father.

Based on information provided in the tip, the Bentonville Police Department obtained a search warrant for the home. They served the warrant last week and seized two computers.

Police Chief James Allen said that it quickly became clear that Johnson's father was not the person who uploaded the videos. That led them to focus on the son, who officers determined had failed to register as a sex offender.

Johnson, 22, was not living there, Allen said. Rather, the man was living at a home in Bentonville; however, Allen did not know the address.

On Monday, Johnson turned himself in at the Bentonville Police Department, Allen said.

Officers charged Johnson for failure to register as a sex offender, a class C felony; and pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a class B felony for a subsequent offense. Johnson is in the Benton County Jail, where he is being held pending probable-cause and bond hearings.

Bentonville served the warrant outside the city, Allen said, because when the local investigation began, it was believed the source of the images was inside the city limits. When it was determined the location was outside the city, Bentonville officers served the warrant because they had done the work, Allen said.

In January 2005, Johnson was placed on eight years' probation after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography.

Johnson, 19 at the time, pleaded guilty to pandering or possessing visual or print medium depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, a class C felony, according to a story in the Jan. 5, 2005, issue of The Benton County Daily Record. Johnson admitted posting a pornographic image of a very young female and an adult male in a sexually graphic pose.