Two more plead guilty in controversial task force case in North Georgia

Two men caught in North Georgia's now-defunct "To Catch a Predator"-style task force are going to jail.

Michael Anthony Bales and Robert Niles Swartout Jr. pleaded guilty in Catoosa County Superior Court on Thursday afternoon. They each are going to jail for one year - followed by six years of probation - after admitting they violated the Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act.

In exchange for Bales and Swartout pleading guilty to two counts of that act, Assistant District Attorney Alan Norton agreed not to prosecute multiple counts against both men for criminal attempt to commit a felony. In Georgia, the child pornography charge the two pleaded guilty to carries a sentence of one to 20 years behind bars.

Police arrested Bales and Swartout in the summer of 2012 as part of the FBI's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The group, which consisted of FBI Special Agent Ken Hillman and several local law enforcement agencies, was supposed to use online chats to catch people who were interested in having sex with children.

Pretending online to be the parents of elementary school-aged girls, the officers were supposed to exchange emails with people who wanted to have sex with the children. If a suspect agreed to a meeting and arrived expecting to have sex with a child, the police would pop out with handcuffs.

But several local defense attorneys have questioned whether the task force actually worked that way. The group came under fire in 2013 when Hillman's mistress, Angela Russell, admitted she chatted online with some of the defendants. Russell is not a trained police officer, and her name did not appear in the the investigative reports.

Ken Hillman

The FBI has suspended Hillman and he is under federal investigation. The defendants in some of his North Georgia cases, meanwhile, continue to wait for trials.

The cases are challenging because prosecutors must have Hillman's testimony to introduce at least some of the evidence, but Hillman's lawyer has told defense attorneys his client will not take the stand, given the criminal investigation into his conduct.

That investigation is now two years old. Meanwhile, defense attorneys - including Public Defender David Dunn, who represents Bales and Swartout - have kept their own cases in purgatory. They want to know if Hillman committed any crimes that could absolve their clients.

Bales and Swartout are among 10 defendants who presented pretrial motions together, their lawyers arguing they should have access to Hillman's personnel file and the computer he - and perhaps his mistress - used to chat with their clients undercover.

Of those defendants, four have now pleaded guilty. Dunn also represented Robert Murphy and Brandon White, who pleaded guilty in May.

It is difficult to know what sentences Bales and Swartout would have received if juries found them guilty. Both men faced several charges.

The counts of criminal attempt to commit a felony, which the district attorney's office declined to prosecute, carry different sentences depending on the weight of the alleged crimes.

Dunn declined to comment on the plea deal Thursday. So did Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herbert "Buzz" Franklin.

Swartout, meanwhile, said he didn't want to go to trial because he believes a jury will sympathize with an FBI agent against a person like him, even if that FBI agent is under investigation.

"They're not going to believe us," he said. "They're going to believe their own kind, the FBI."

Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at tjett@timesfreepress.com or at 423-757-6476.