A Chicago-area veterinarian who is a well-known judge on the national dog show circuit has been arrested on child pornography charges alleging he chatted online about a plan to sexually assault his newborn son, posting ultrasound images and photos of baby outfits as proof of the child’s pending arrival.
Adam Stafford King, 39, of far west suburban Elburn, was arrested Friday, shortly before he had planned fly to California to be with the surrogate mother for his son’s birth, according to a criminal complaint made public Monday.
King, a veterinarian specializing in ophthalmology who had been scheduled to be a judge in the toy dog category at the Westminster Kennel Club show in May, was ordered held pending a detention hearing Tuesday, court records show.
Prosecutors have asked that King be held without bond. His attorney, Jonathan Singer, had no comment on the case Monday.
According to the 33-page complaint, King, using the handle @pervchiguy, traded child pornography with an unidentified person in New York and told the person he liked kids in the “single digits.”
After the person in New York was arrested last year, the FBI posed as him online and exchanged messages with King, including several in November when King allegedly stated he had drugged and sexually abused his nephews and nieces in the past.
“I generally use Benadryl,” King allegedly wrote. “I usually double an adult dose.”
It’s unclear in the complaint whether those statements had been further investigated, however King is not charged with sexual abuse.
On Nov. 9, King mentioned in the chat that he and his husband were expecting a child, according to the complaint. “Just as an fyi, you’re working on another dad here lol,” King allegedly wrote.
King stated he was married “to a non perv,” and that they were having the baby through a surrogate mother, the complaint alleged. On two separate occasions, King sent ultrasound photos of an unborn child, which he claimed were images of the child he and his husband are expecting in the spring, according to the complaint.
On Dec. 29, King posted an image of baby outfits that appeared to have the tags still on them, including a onesie with an elephant and birds and the words “So happy together.”
“We got so much baby stuff for Christmas!” he wrote in the chat, according to the complaint.
Earlier this month, the FBI executed a search warrant at King’s house in Elburn. Agents entered the master bathroom “and observed King in the shower” with his iPhone “despite multiple verbal announcements of the FBI’s presence,” the complaint alleged.
King refused to be interviewed, but did give the password to his phone, where agents found several of the photos matching what had been posted in the chat, the complaint alleged. They also discovered a baby outfit in the bedroom closet that matched what had been posted online.
According to the complaint, King is a staff ophthalmologist at MedVet Chicago. In addition to being a dog show judge, he’s also a dog breeder and operates a Havanese dog breeding kennel called “Askin Havanese,” the complaint stated.
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com
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