Police arrest Bonnerdale man on child pornography counts
HOT SPRINGS — A Bonnerdale man was arrested Saturday morning on 27 felony counts involving child pornography stemming from an Arkansas State Police investigation.
William Aaron Cowles, 36, was booked into the Garland County jail shortly after 10:30 a.m. Saturday on 27 counts of distributing, possessing, or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child, each punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear.
Cowles remained in custody Tuesday in lieu of a $75,000 bond and is set to appear March 25 in Garland County Circuit Court where the case was filed directly on March 5 with a warrant for his arrest issued on March 6.
According to a probable cause affidavit, on May 22, Arkansas State Police Special Agent Chris Garner received 27 Cyber Tipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for child pornography images being uploaded to a Synchronoss Technologies Inc. account.
The images were uploaded on Jan. 19, Jan. 26, Jan. 28, Feb. 4, Feb. 7, Feb. 9, Feb. 10, Feb. 12, Feb. 24, March 3 and March 13, all in 2023, and it was noted the account was registered under the name of Aaron Cowles.
An administrative subpoena was prepared for the account’s cellphone number and sent to the phone service provider for the account. The provider responded and indicated the owner of the account resided in Hot Springs.
Cowles was found to have a listed address on Texana Lane in Bonnerdale, and he was identified by his Arkansas driver’s license, police said. Garner prepared a preservation letter and sent it to Synchronoss to preserve the data in that account.
That same day, Garner received an email from Synchronoss acknowledging the request, and on May 23, the company emailed Garner and indicated the information in the account was sent in an encrypted email with a password. The information was reviewed and allegedly “did contain children of a prepubescent age that were in a sexual nature,” police said.
Garner previewed three videos, all of which had prepubescent females who appeared to be under the age of 11 and all involved graphic depictions of sexual acts, police said.
In the content data sent from Synchronoss, there was a photo of Cowles “posing for a selfie” and next to that was a video and two other photos of child pornography, the affidavit said.
On Dec. 27, 2023, Garner received additional cyber tips to include more child pornography images being uploaded via Synchronoss Tech to Cowles’ listed phone number, police said.
Garner’s affidavit on the charges was submitted on Feb. 29 and the criminal information prepared on March 5 with the arrest warrant issued shortly after 12:30 a.m. on March 6.
According to court records, Cowles lists no prior felony history, but had pleaded no contest to misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated, first offense, on Dec. 27, 2016, and DWI, second offense, and resisting arrest on Nov. 20, 2020.