Noting what he did was “appalling,” a federal judge Thursday sentenced a former Knoxville police officer to 25 years in prison for conspiring to get and receiving more than 40 sexually explicit images of a child starting when she was 6 years old.
Dan Roark, 48, will be 73 when he gets out of prison. After that, he faces the rest of his life on supervised released.
U.S. District Court Judge Katherine A. Crytzer accepted a specific sentencing agreement reached by defense attorneys and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kolman that called for a punishment range of 262 months to 300 months.
Crytzer chose the top of the range, which amounts to 25 years. Roark cried quietly at one point during the sentencing hearing and declined a chance to speak on his own behalf.
He is represented by Gregory P. Isaacs and Ashlee Mathis of the Isaacs Law Firm.
Roark is seeking imprisonment at a federal facility in Kentucky.
Starting in 2019, Roark received explicit images of the Virginia child from her mother. Roark paid for images, the investigation showed.
Crytzer noted the investigation showed he got at least 41 pornographic images.
Roark, a KPD officer 16 years, disguised his identity to the mother, altering his name and claiming falsely that he was a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer, Kolman said.
To the child, he was “Daddy Dan,” Kolman said. He also listed a fake address in Knoxville from which he sent money to the mother in Virginia.
KPD fired Roark in 2023 after learning of the accusations against him.
Hellbound and Down 