Secretary testifies against attorney in child porn case

A woman testified Tuesday that she saw her former employer, a Dothan lawyer, looking at child pornography in his office.

Autumn Davis testified in the trial against Randy Brackin, 62, who faces 11 felony child pornography charges. Brackin formerly served as an attorney in Dothan, and Davis formerly served as his secretary.

Davis said she not only saw Brackin looking at child pornography in the office, but she also found child pornography on a portable jump drive for a computer he’d given her. She also said the jump drive included at least one documented will of Brackin’s relatives.

Houston County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Brackin in February 2009.

Davis said she started working for Brackin in March 2008, but quit in late January 2009.

“He would be looking at pornography when I would come into the office,” Davis said.

Davis said she also saw Brackin looking at child pornography at least once while in the office.

“I remember one very clearly,” Davis said. “It was a little girl probably about 4 or 5, and she had on a little sundress that she had pulled up. I’ll never forget what I saw.”

Davis said she called Crime Stoppers to report the child porn images to the authorities, and later called Houston County Sheriff’s Sgt. Investigator Bill Rafferty.

She also acknowledged she received $500 from Crime Stoppers for the information she gave law enforcement.

“Those children were under the age of 7 or 8 years old,” Davis said. “Those children were performing things I don’t believe adults should do.”

The prosecution, led by District Attorney Doug Valeska, played a tape recorded conversation between Davis and Brackin.

“If you want to you can just destroy it, but I’d like to have my aunt and uncle’s will,” Brackin said on the tape recording. “Well, just go ahead and get rid of it.”

Attorney Doug Bates, who represented Brackin, said the defense declined to cross-examine Davis, but reserved the right to call her back for questioning. Three other lawyers also represent Brackin, including Stephen Etheridge, Dustin Fowler and Denny Holloway.

Rafferty testified that deputies served search warrants as part of the investigation at several different locations, including Brackin’s home, his mother’s home, his girlfriend’s home and his office. Rafferty said the warrants were the result of Davis having called him to report the child pornography.

“There were more images than we charged him with,” Rafferty said.

Rafferty said at least one of the images depicted a girl between the age of 3 and 6 performing a sex act. Many of the others depicted children under the age of 8 performing sex acts.

As part of the prosecution’s evidence, jurors watched the images on a television screen in the courtroom.

During cross-examination by the defense, Rafferty said he did not attempt to take finger prints from the compact disc taken into evidence. Rafferty was also questioned about whether there were locks on the office door and desk drawer where they found the CD.

Etheridge also questioned Rafferty about whether deputies ever seized and searched any of Davis’ computers.

Lynette Johnson, a computer analyst for the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, said she found more than 100 images of child pornography from two computer
hard drives and a portable jump drive seized as evidence in the investigation.

During cross-examination by the defense, Johnson said she didn’t know which computer the CD came from that contained the pornographic images.

Bates reminded jurors during the opening statements that it’s not against the law to possess pornography.

“Randy Brackin did not knowingly possess any illegal pornography,” Bates said.