Former Malone University Employee Arrested on Child Pornography Charges

CANTON (News Talk 1480 WHBC) – A former employee of Malone University has been arrested by the FBI on child exploitation and child pornography charges. 33 year old William Doty Jr. faces the serious charges that come following a search of his Canton home last week.

“We were informed a few weeks ago that the FBI had some concern of the behavior of [Doty],” Tim Bryan Malone University VP of Communications and Marketing said. “We immediately cooperated with them.”

Bryan tells WHBC News that as soon as the University received word that the investigation was finished and they were able to act, they did. Doty was fired on Tuesday, July 21. He had been with the University for four years, two of them in the role of Sports Information Director.

An FBI news release says the agency got a tip in June alleging a person using the username “d.beas22” on Instagram was communicating with multiple children. All of the children were under the age of 12.

The account allegedly made sexually explicit statements and requested to engage in sexual activities. The person also solicited nude photos and videos from the identified victims. FBI agents were able to connect the account to Doty.

During the investigation, agents say Doty admitted to using the account for what the tip accused him of.  The news release says Doty “made several admissions to investigators, including that he has been using Instagram for 2-4 years for the purposes of having young girls, age 8 and up, send him `naked’ images and videos.”

“We are sick that this occurred,” said Bryan when asked for a comment on the situation. “We want people to know that we took immediate action as soon as we were allowed to. We did the right thing and we did it immediately.”