{"id":425685,"date":"2026-09-04T03:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T03:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425685\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T03:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T03:06:11","slug":"former-north-texas-police-officer-given-three-life-sentences-for-child-pornography-solicitation-of-minor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425685\/","title":{"rendered":"Former North Texas police officer given three life sentences for child pornography, solicitation of minor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ITASCA, Texas – A former police officer in Itasca was given three life sentences for possession of child pornography and soliciting sexual acts from a minor.<\/p>\n

Former Itasca officer sentenced \"\" <\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

Daniel Joseph Bates, a former police officer with the Itasca Police Department, was convicted on Wednesday of possessing child pornography and online solicitation of a minor.<\/p>\n

He was given three life sentences for the child pornography charges and 40 years for the solicitation charge by a Johnson County judge.<\/p>\n

Bates was arrested by the Texas Rangers after online communication with what he thought was a 15-year-old girl. An adult decoy was posing as the girl, who alerted authorities to Bates.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

A search warrant was executed at Bates’ residence, where investigators found nearly 300 videos and photos of children being sexually abused.<\/p>\n

Bates later testified he possessed the child pornography due to a secret police investigation into human traffickers. He was a reserve officer at the time of his arrest and had been working in construction security.<\/p>\n

The child pornography in the case was presented to the jury during Bates’ trial.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

“We knew going into this, the hardest part would be getting a jury because you tell the jury what you’re going to walk into \u2014 and it is some of the worst stuff you will ever see in your life.”<\/p>\n

Johnson County District Attorney Timothy Good tells FOX 4’s David Sentendrey that Bates tried to use his police connection to get out of his arrest.<\/p>\n

“He actually tried to play the badge thing.”<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

The adult decoy who alerted police to Bates says the former officer made it clear he always carries a gun, leading him to point law enforcement his way.<\/p>\n

“Some people say we’re vigilantes. Vigilantes beat up these people. I hand everything over to law enforcement,” Arlind Queriman tells Sentendrey.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

What’s next:<\/p>\n

The earliest Bates can get out of prison is 90 years from now.<\/p>\n

The Source: Information in this story comes from the Johnson County District Attorney’s Office.<\/p>\n

Johnson County<\/a>Crime and Public Safety<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ITASCA, Texas – A former police officer in Itasca was given three life sentences for possession of child…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425686,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1046,438,223,27,29,28,216,393],"class_list":["post-425685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-johnson-county","tag-news","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-tx","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425685","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=425685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425685\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}