{"id":218940,"date":"2026-03-25T00:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218940\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T00:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T00:53:08","slug":"texas-sex-offender-arrested-after-dropping-thumb-drive-with-child-porn-outside-sheriffs-office-officials-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218940\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas sex offender arrested after dropping thumb drive with child porn outside sheriff’s office, officials say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A registered sex offender in Parker County<\/a> was arrested after investigators say he accidentally dropped a thumb drive containing thousands of files of child pornography in the parking lot of the sheriff’s office following a routine compliance check.<\/p>\n

According to the Parker County Sheriff’s Office<\/a>, William Raymond Catron was taken into custody after deputies linked him to a digital thumb drive found outside the agency’s main building on March 18. The device, turned in by a visitor, contained more than 2,000 images and 100 videos of child pornography, along with photos of Catron, authorities said.<\/p>\n

Sheriff Russ Authier said Catron had just completed a required sex offender compliance appointment, where registrants must periodically verify their information, before leaving the building and driving away.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Investigators later reviewed surveillance video that showed a thumb drive falling from Catron’s pocket as he retrieved his car keys in the parking lot, according to the sheriff’s office.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video, confession lead to additional charges<\/p>\n

\"William<\/p>\n

William Raymond Catron.<\/p>\n

Parker County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n

Authorities said the footage, along with the contents of the device, helped confirm the thumb drive belonged to Catron and was in his possession during the compliance check.<\/p>\n

Investigators contacted Catron and asked him to return to the sheriff’s office, where he was taken into custody. During a recorded interview, officials said Catron confessed to possessing child pornography.<\/p>\n

A subsequent search of his home, conducted with assistance from the Weatherford<\/a> Police Department and the Texas Department of Public Safety<\/a>, turned up additional electronic devices believed to contain similar material.<\/p>\n

After reviewing the evidence, a judge issued additional warrants on March 20, charging Catron with first-degree felony possession of child pornography involving a child under 10 and second-degree felony failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements.<\/p>\n

Catron was booked into the Parker County Jail. His bond was set at $750,000.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A registered sex offender in Parker County was arrested after investigators say he accidentally dropped a thumb drive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[430,7812,27,2785,29,28,7813],"class_list":{"0":"post-218940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas","8":"tag-north-texas","9":"tag-parker-county","10":"tag-texas","11":"tag-texas-dps","12":"tag-texas-headlines","13":"tag-texas-news","14":"tag-weatherford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}