Federal Prosecutor Accused In Sex Sting Commits Suicide

[eppur_se_muova]

Source: Channel 4, Detroit

POSTED: 2:32 pm EDT October 5, 2007
UPDATED: 4:27 pm EDT October 5, 2007

MILAN, Mich. -- John D.R. Atchison, the federal prosecutor who was arrested in an Internet sex sting after he allegedly traveled to Michigan from Florida to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, hung himself in a Michigan federal prison Friday morning.

Atchison, 53, of Pensacola, Fla., was put on suicide watch after he used a bed sheet in an attempted suicide in September.

Detroit police confirmed Atchison's suicide death at 10:14 a.m. Friday. They have not released any details.

Atchison was a married father of three and a respected figure who coached girls' softball and basketball in a park a few blocks from his home in this well-to-do beach community.

Read more: http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/14278705/detail.html

---

WARNING: Something on this site crashed my browser. Don't know what network ch 4 is affiliated with -- maybe unaffiliated?

Story is now at www.cnn.com , but clicking takes you to ch. 4/WDIV's site.

[TomInTib]

1. "was put on suicide watch ". Your tax dollars at work. nt

[cali]

3. no kidding. this guy had already tried once. n/t

[bluestateguy]

20. I suspect it means that the guards watched while he committed suicide

nt

[TomInTib]

23. I wondered about that, too. Maybe a bribe?

Hell, I would watch the guy kill himself for a few thousand dollars.

[awoke_in_2003]

28. I'd pay too

I not for the death penalty except when it comes to child molestation, then I would be willing to do the deed.

[TomInTib]

35. Actually,....

I probably would have wrapped my arms around his knees and provided an extra 170lbs of downward force.

[rusty quoin]

2. It's a tragedy all around.

[atreides1]

4. No

The real tragedy was his plan to have sex with a child of 5, and his own admission that he knew what he was doing, so he wouldn't hurt the girl!!!!

This way the tax payers don't have to foot the bill for a trial, and his family can be spared being cast into the spotlight, not for any good he might have done but for this evil deed that he was willing to take part in!!!!!


And yes, I am a cold hearted bastard.

[AZ Criminal JD]

10. A good self assessment n/t

[Forrest Greene]

11. I Don't Like The Fact, But I Find It Almost Impossible

...to feel any compassion for this man. Or if I do, it's for the suffering that he probably never even felt, himself.

I could be wrong, but I imagine his main feeling of remorse, if any, was at being caught, not at his deeds.

His victims & his family, friends, colleagues & society at large -- you & me -- were all betrayed by him &, sad as many will be, I think we are all better off without him. For his victims' sakes, it's too bad he didn't suicide sooner, & I think that's the plain, hard, not-pretty truth.

[bperci108]

42. There was a worse tragedy hidden here....

If I'm not mistaken he assured the girl's mother/guardian/whoever that he "would be gentle and not to worry; he had done this before".

THAT was the reeeeaaaallly bad part, IMHO.

Was this covered much in the MSM? I've been out of the loop on this story.

How many more victims are there?


:puke:

[...of J.Temperance]

70. Completely agree

I commented something similar just moments ago, regarding how this has saved the taxpayer some money.

I have zero sympathy with freaks of nature like this critter, and I can't really understand how anyone can feel an ounce of compassion for POS like him.

Yes, where pedophiles are concerned, I'm a cold hearted bastard as well.

[MichaelHarris]

8. Nope

the tragedy is the noose didn't rip his sick head off. I'm more cold hearted than that other guy.

[AZ Criminal JD]

12. It's good to know what's inside your head n/t

[MichaelHarris]

18. what?

want me to invite him to dinner?

[AZ Criminal JD]

24. Hmmm . . . . I think in a civilized society there is something

in between ripping his head off and inviting him to dinner. But that's just me.

[razors edge]

27. I would have

ripped off something in between his head and his feet.

[MichaelHarris]

41. maybe

having his head for dinner?

[AZ Criminal JD]

47. Please tell me you don't live within a 1000 miles of me n/t

[rodeodance]

34. yes, for him, his family--the victim and her family.

[LisaL]

62. Well, since this was a sting operation, in this particular case, there

were no actual victim.

[...of J.Temperance]

69. No it's not

The only tragedy was that a 5 year-old child was targeted.

[sinkingfeeling]

5. Well, his attorney requested the charges be dropped and they will be, so Atchinson will have

died with a clean record.

[robinlynne]

13. just like Ken Lay.

[Arkansas Granny]

6. Let me think on this for a while and see if I can conjure up any

sympathy at all for this criminal.

. . . .No, I can't. None whatsoever. I feel sorrow for his victims and for his family, but not for this cretin.

[babylonsister]

7. Amen, Granny. Doesn't say much for those on the suicide watch though,

does it.

[Forrest Greene]

14. I Wonder If Their Possible Negligence

...was perhaps instead something along the lines of a physician-assisted dying, the kind of thing that is said to be quite common but is never openly talked about, such as a doctor deliberately giving just a little too much painkiller to a patient with clearly only a few more days to live, thus reducing the suffering of everyone involved.

[babylonsister]

17. But he wasn't 'dying', except inside probably. nt

[Forrest Greene]

45. Which Is Maybe Worse

...than dying both ways at the same time, yes? Having to stick around & watch it happen to yourself, assuming you're aware enough to know what is happening.

And so perhaps any "deliberate negligence," any "looking the other way," if such did in fact occur, was, in a not really very unusual way, an act of compassion on the part of the watchers. Or on the other hand, perhaps such inaction, if any, was an indirect, hands-off, application of the kind of rough justice that is said traditionally to be visited upon pederasts when jailed.

Either way, for most of us reading this, it seems to end with a shrug.

[Maq]

9. mug shot of Atchison

Rest in Peace, you wouldn't have gotten any alive.

He made an internet claim that he did the deviant behavior before. I wonder with whom and when, and what were the circumstances.

[awoke_in_2003]

30. Probably with his own children

[kurth]

15. Good

[truthisfreedom]

16. How frustrating. I had a feeling this guy might have led to a ring of gov't criminals.

We'll probably never know how much damage he did.

[bperci108]

43. Or who he was connected to.

I've read these types run in tight circles and network extensively.

Wonder if there are any big-time "conservative christians" or other big GOP muckety-mucks that made his Xmas card list?

[sce56]

46. Read about the conspiracy of silence here!

http://www.voxfux.com/features/bush_child_sex_coverup/franklin.
Newspaper articles and video!

[SoCalDemGrrl]

48. My thoughts too -I keep thinking of The Franklin Cover-Up by DeCamp

This guy could have been the tip of the iceberg leading to a pedophile
ring.

We'll now never know.

[NoGOPZone]

19. Was he in solitary confinement?

Child molestors usually don't make out too well with fellow inmates.

[superconnected]

21. I have to suspend judgement.

since the last time I read of an accused ped killing himself,

it was the one from TV where it turned out the producers were coercing men into saying things and only taking parts of what they said, etc. I don't know what happend to this guy but if it was anything like the last internet sex sting I read about, he may have been innocent. I don't know.

Then of course there's the victimless crime if he was set up by the police and it's actually a thought crime - meaning that, he would have committed a crime had one existed but he didn't so let's kill him for his intentions anyway, logic. My problem with that logic is it could extend to liberals eventually in general and not just the way that very logic has already extended to US "terrorists" (people that had nothing to do with terrorism but the us approached them, coerced them into it and arrested them for intent even when they said they didn't want to be part but the gov took parts of things they said anyway and locked them up).

[Up2Late]

22. Maybe they should have put him on "child-molester watch"? Maybe I'm just overly cynical, but...

...maybe it was a suicide, or maybe it was something else. :shrug:

Child molesters tend not to live long in prison, just sayin'.

Either way, enjoy your time in Hell you F.P.O.S. :grr:

[theNotoriousP.I.G.]

25. Somebody has some explaining to do

this guy was on suicide watch with a previous attempt and now he's successful? Yeah right.

[cstanleytech]

26. I find it depressing to learn

that in some areas like wishing people would die or suffer pain conservatives and liberals think alike.

[Demit]

29. Perhaps you're not allowing enough leeway for spontaneous reactions.

I think people are thinking more of the man's victims right now. Ask people again later, when their feeling of anguish has cooled, whether they believe in the death penalty/torture/etc. You really have to just let people vent sometimes, before you take down their thoughts for posterity.

[cstanleytech]

44. Perhaps you are right

but its depressing a little still to see the same kinda hate here even if its only a knee-jerk reaction.

[GOPNotForMe]

36. I agree. It's hard to relish someone else's suicide, no matter how bad he may have been.

I'm not saying that he was innocent, but he also wasn't proven guilty yet either.

[liberalla]

59. When it comes to crimes against children and animals, I see red.

My immediate reaction is intense. Part of me is happy this guy has gone away. Another part of me would have liked to see the trial.

Assistant U.S. attorney charged in child sex sting
He flew from Florida for a 5-year-old girl, court records show

An assistant U.S. attorney from northern Florida appeared today in federal court in Detroit on charges he flew to metro Detroit to have sex with someone he thought was a 5-year-old girl.

John David Roy Atchison, 53, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., was charged with enticement of a minor using the Internet and knowingly traveling interstate to engage in illicit sex.

With eyes cast downward and fiddling with papers, Atchison asked for a court attorney before he obtains one on his own.

His arrest Sunday was part of an undercover sex crime sting on behalf of the Macomb Area Computer Enforcement Team, also known as M.A.C.E.

According to court records, Atchison, who described himself as “very much a family man,” initiated an online chat Aug. 29 with an undercover officer posing as a mother interested in letting men have sex with her children.

During continuous conversations, he expressed a desire to engage in oral, vaginal and anal sex with her fictitious daughter, records show.

At one point, he wrote: “I’m always gentle and loving; not to worry; no damage ever; no rough stuff ever ever.”

He assured the undercover officer that the girl would not need medical attention, saying, “I can be absolutely sure; just gotta go slow and very easy is how; I’ve done it plenty.”

Prosecutors say the transcripts could lead to further investigations.

...slightly more ar link

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070917/NEWS04/70917039&imw=Y

another article: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070917/UPDATE/709170422/1020/rss09

5 years old. freakin sicko.

[LisaL]

61. You got to wonder if authorities are looking

into who and where those children are, with whom he "done it plenty," if he told the truth.

[shanti]

67. if it involves children

yes, you could be right on that!

[soothsayer]

31. Hope those girls he coached are all ok (unmolested)

[EMAN51]

52. I have a HS pal

who lives in Gulf Breeze and has 2 softball playing daughters. They knew the daughters of this pedophile and went to school with them. The mother worked at the school. My friend served on the softball association with this guy and he has known him for many years. Since this has come to light, there has been a lot of discussion, but no indication that the behavior was in the neighborhood community. His wife and children are the true victims along with the other children he was involved with.

[PSPS]

32. Dead because of a "thought crime"

I regret having to interrupt this orgy of grave dancing, but this guy was arrested for a thought crime. There was never any child involved regardless of what he might have thought. His suicide is a tragedy.

[Gin]

33. Now we will never know who else he molested......no sympathy from me

and just like Kenny boy...dies with a clean slate......talk about playing the system.

[GOPNotForMe]

37. Agreed! And whatever your opinion may be of though crime, he was not found guilty yet! nt

[PassingFair]

39. One sentence for YOU:

"Arresting officers said they found a Dora the Explorer Doll, earrings and petroleum jelly in his luggage."

[Faygo Kid]

49. Spare us this crap. He had self admittedly "done this before."

As a father and rational human being, I will save the designation "tragedy" for other events than this self-confessed child rapist's death.

Don't expect us to share your "grief." And as far as "grave dancing," I would rather have had him tried - but that was HIS CHOICE. How can you flatly state "There was never any child involved" in light of his own statement, and the circumstances of his case and visit to Detroit?

I am under no illusion that you think for one moment that what he did was morally questionable. But understand that others feel differently, and that abuse of children is to many of us the true "tragedy."

[Pavulon]

38. I am sure the other 5 year olds

he molested or was going to molest are better off.

[justjones]

40. I would kill myself too if I thought about raping 5 year olds.

How sick and warped a person's mind and heart must be to think having sex with children is okay, yet he was a high-functioning member of our society. This really scares me. We must all be vigilant about keeping our children safe.

Maybe he did humanity a favor by taking his own life. Perhaps he deserves some credit for committing suicide before committing an atrocity against a child, if he had not done so already.

[BadgerLaw2010]

50. Good riddence. Probably "assisted" suicide.

[Danger Mouse]

51. good riddance to a fucking scumbag.

had he made it to prison, he wouldn't have lasted long anyway.
the whole story makes me :puke:

[Didereaux]

53. Incarcerated Prosecutor Commits Suicide

Source: (Detroit)AP

DETROIT (AP) -- A federal prosecutor from Florida accused of flying to Detroit last month to molest a 5-year-old girl committed suicide in his cell Friday in federal prison, authorities said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John D.R. Atchison was found unresponsive, taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, said Felicia Ponce, spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington. A previous suicide attempt was foiled in September, according to authorities.

Atchison was being held in a special housing unit in the prison in Milan, about 36 miles southwest of Detroit.

The administrative detention area houses all levels of prisoners, and Atchison had a cell to himself, Ponce said.

She declined to say how Atchison killed himself or whether he was on suicide watch, saying the death was being investigated.

Read more: http://galvestondailynews.com/wire.lasso?report=/dynamic/stories/P/PROSECUTOR_SEX_STING

---

Hmmmm, he tried that the first day, in Florida I believe, but the locals were watching. The Feds seem to have been somewhat less 'diligent'. I am appalled from a technically 'Ideal' standpoint, I am quite pleased from a personal level. One less republican pedophile, a rather more loathsome variety than the usual run-of-the-mill variety to boot.

[Judi Lynn]

54. The article says they will dismiss the case, now. It could have been good for the Republicans

if he would have stayed around long enough to get through his trial, and revel in all the great free publicity they'd be getting.

Maybe it wasn't suicide at all, but rather someone from the Republican Party who stopped in for a visit, to alter the expected flow of events, the way Alberto Gonzalez and Andrew Card did, when John Ashcroft was in the hospital.

[flordehinojos]

55. you know, poppy has tentacles that keep growing like a hydra and he is very capble of

so many things that he is also capable of denying. anything is possible and nationalism, patriotism, power and control are some ofthose things that poppy lusts after ... he might have been trying to save the republican party from the descent to hell that his son has sent it into ... although he must approve of what his son is doing and he may even be the puppet master behind the scenes for what his son is doing.

[liberalla]

57. Scenarios such as you describe should not be so easy to believe

but they are. I think this was a very beneficial result for the Repuke party. Making the best of a bad situation.

[liberalla]

56. Yes, I share the 'pleased' feeling also.

While I don't view pedophiles as being honorable, this was an 'almost' honorable way to resolve his case. My only problem is with the sequence of events. Kill yourself *before* you hurt kids, not after.

[rzemanfl]

58. He was allowed to commit suicide by the authorities in charge

of the federal prison, or helped....

[Gin]

60. I read a comment in the Pensacola news comment section that

he had a secret room in the house that nobody was allowed to enter, and that his children were forbidden to have sleepovers.

The comments also said he hung himself.

Wonder if the truth will ever be known about his family and extracurricular activities.

[Carrieyazel]

63. This individual put people away; many lives were ruined by his prosecutions

I can definitely understand why he would take that way out. He couldn't live with it, after he was caught.

[Maq]

66. I wonder if his cases can be challenged because of his secrets.

"This individual put people away; many lives were ruined by his prosecutions"

Can a sharp lawyer ever challenge his prosecutions?

There must be lawyers who find his dark secrets repulsive.

[Myrina]

64. a FIVE YEAR OLD ???

Christ, what is WRONG with people?!?!

:cry: :spank: :wtf:

[AngryAmish]

65. At least he could do one decent thing in his life

[...of J.Temperance]

68. Good riddance

What a disgusting POS....a five year-old child, totally sick.

He's saved the taxpayers some money, because no doubt at some point this POS was going to get jailed for a long time, thus decent, hard-working and law abiding citizens would have to pay to keep him locked up.

Personally, if I had my way, the Death Penalty would be expanded to include pedophiles....they even TOUCH a child, they should be executed, regardless of whether or not they've murdered anyone.

These utter freaks of nature, are a complete menace to normal, decent society and civilization, they should be put down, like you'd put a rabid dog down....and I have no time for people who have ANY compassion for these critters and say "Oh but they're victims too", total nonsense in my humble opinion.