U.S.: Terms broken in child-porn case
A Pulaski County man who pleaded guilty in 2018 to one count of possession of child pornography and was released from federal prison in August 2019 faces the possible revocation of his supervised release for a second time after numerous violations of the terms of his supervised release.
Dawson River Hisaw, 23, was accused in a petition filed Aug. 18 by the U.S. Probation Office of six violations of the terms of his release between July 9 and Aug. 18 this year. A superseding petition, filed Sept. 1, noted three more violations, including failure to report a change of address and failure to complete registration with the Little Rock Police Department as a sex offender. At that time, the superseding petition noted, Hisaw’s whereabouts were not known.
Hisaw was arrested Sunday on charges of drug possession and failure to register as a sex offender, and is being held in the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $30,000 bond, according to online jail records.
He was indicted in October 2017 on one count of possession of child pornography and three counts of receiving child pornography. On Aug. 10, 2019, he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography in exchange for the remaining three counts being dismissed, and on Dec. 20, 2019, was sentenced to 30 months in prison to be followed by eight years supervised release.
In January, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller revoked Hisaw’s supervised release and sentenced him to serve an additional nine months in prison. Miller ordered that term of imprisonment to be followed by five years supervised release, which began July 6. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristin Bryant had sought Hisaw’s first supervised release revocation after the U.S. Probation Office noted more than a dozen violations of his conditions between January and September of 2020.
Hisaw appeared Tuesday by video conference line from the Pulaski County jail before U.S. Magistrate Judge Edie Ervin in an initial hearing to enter a plea to the allegations contained in the current revocation petition.
Ervin appointed Jim Phillips of Little Rock to represent Hisaw. He told her that he had reviewed the allegations contained in the revocation petition with Hisaw.
“We will plead not true, not guilty, and request a hearing,” Phillips told Ervin.
“Are you requesting a preliminary hearing or a detention hearing?” asked Ervin.
“We’re going to reserve on detention since there is a state hold on him,” Phillips said.
“That would be premature,” Ervin agreed.
“We’re just requesting a final hearing,” Phillips responded.
Ervin said a final hearing on the matter has been scheduled before Miller on Oct. 13, and asked Phillips to enter a waiver of a preliminary hearing on behalf of his client.
“So I’m waiving that hearing?” Hisaw asked. “I don’t really think there was probable cause to search me or stuff like that …,” Hisaw began.
“Mr. Phillips can explain to you what your rights are and if you want a preliminary hearing, let me know,” Ervin said. “Otherwise, the final hearing is scheduled.”
Because of the state hold, Hisaw will likely remain in jail until the final revocation hearing, Bryant said, making opposition by the U.S. Attorneys office to his release a moot point until then.