'Not what I expected to see': Older men caught taking images of children in public

Two incidents, just days apart, involving photography of children have swept the tri-state region.

One man was arrested and one was let go after being called out on taking images of younger children at a public pool and a pageant show, respectively. Tashanda Johnson, pageant coach, took to social media, detailing a Hispanic male taking pictures of girls in a pageant at the Ashland Town Center Mall Saturday, June 15.

She said witnesses observed the man uploading the photos to a group chat on his device.

“We were in fight mode,” Johnson said in a Facebook post. “Jon (her husband) gave the security officers his phone. The mall security just told him to delete the pictures and then escorted him out. Another lady had called the cops. When the cops finally came they had already deleted all the photos and group messages.

“Jon asked for his phone and looked and the pictures were going to a group chat,” Johnson added.

Todd Kelley, Ashland’s chief of police, said officers were called to the scene and no charges were presented due to the fact the man didn’t cross any lines of criminal activity, according to Kentucky state law.

“We had to go through a lot of communication challenges, where he’s very fluent in speaking Spanish,” he said.

“It’s not a criminal offense. … Based on what these people reported on Facebook, we don’t have anything based on our investigation there that created anything criminal,” Kelley said.

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Ashland police cruisers are pictured at the Ashland Town Center Mall Saturday, June 15.

Vicki Ramey, general manager of the mall, was “not able” to speak on the matter, but expressed commitment to the safety of all visitors wishing to make an appearance inside the mall.

“The safety of our guests, retailers and employees is our top priority. For more information regarding law enforcement matters, please contact the Ashland Police Department directly at (606) 327-2020,” she said.

Just less than 8 miles down the road, an incident of an older white male was reported photographing children underwater on Tuesday around 3:30 p.m. at Dreamland Pool in Kenova, West Virginia.

Ronald Woodrow Thompson, 61, was booked at the Western Regional Jail in Barboursville on Tuesday at 9:50 p.m. and charged with child erotica with a cash bond set at $5,000, according to the jail. He was still in custody on Thursday, according to the jail.

A mother present at the pool with family observed him swimming under her daughter in the pool with a black GoPro camera.

“In that moment I was heartbroken and angry,” the mother said. “My daughter loves swimming and I am not going to take her away from going out and swimming. She doesn’t know she was recorded. I don’t want her to remember at 8 years old a grown man recording her underwater.

“It broke my heart completely, I wanted to do more than what I did. I have never thought I would be in this situation. What happened Tuesday is something I would see on the news or a movie. It’s not what I expected to see with my own eyes,” she said.

The mother was in the water with goggles on her face chasing her daughter when she noticed him under her daughter with camera in-hand.

“That’s when I came up out of the water and grabbed her really quick. Then I looked at my husband and said, ‘Hold her, this is weird; why was he under my kid? So I went back under with her goggles and I noticed him going under with something black in his hand,” she said.

“I watched him go under another girl’s buttocks; he went under two of them and that’s when I came back up out of the water and told all the little girls to come near me,” she added.

Thompson overheard the woman telling children to come to her when he came up out of the water.

“He said, ‘I don’t have nothing,’ and that’s when my mom’s instinct was like ‘no, your gut was right, he does have something,’” she said.

“That’s when I started chasing him out of the water, calling him a liar,” she said.

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Ronald W. Thompson is seen sporting orange swimming trunks and a blue hat at the Dreamland Pool in Kenova Tuesday.

Video footage from the afternoon shows Thompson at the pool and parents confronting him over the incident. The mother said her husband jumped into action when he noticed the individual started deleting images he had taken.

“When he pulled out his phone he was trying to delete the pictures and that’s when my husband bear-hugged him and took his phone and camera away from him,” she said.

“I have got a report back to me that pictures were on his GoPro, but unable to get in his phone yet. His phone is in the custody of the police,” she added.

This is not the first time Thompson was caught doing this, according to records.

He was arrested in Texas and charged with 26 counts by a Bexar County grand jury of “improper photography” in 2011 after photographing kids at SeaWorld in San Antonio, Texas, court documents said.

Upon arrest by police, more than 70 images of children in swimsuits mostly centered on the breasts or buttocks were discovered after seizure of his camera.

In 2013, the fourth court of appeals ruled Thompson should not face an improper photography charge because the Texas law is unconstitutional.

Another mother who preferred not to be identified told The Daily Independent her daughters were at Dreamland and said, “it’s scary how many invisible monsters there are,” she said.

“As a mother, it makes me feel discouraged,” she said. “You can’t take your kids out to do normal summer activities without worrying about someone being there with ill intentions. I feel like my sense of safety for our community’s children is shaken up.”