78-year-old Aberdeen man arraigned on child molestation and pornography charges

An Aberdeen man pleaded not guilty this week to child pornography and molestation charges in connection with accusations that he had been molesting a minor over the span of two years, from April of 2011 to November of 2013.

Willis Ray Whitney, 78, is charged with child molestation in the second degree and possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first and second degree.

The Aberdeen Police Department was contacted on Nov. 4, 2013, regarding a DVD that allegedly belonged to the defendant and showed a juvenile male, along with other minors, being sexually assaulted by Whitney. When the minor shown in the video was contacted by police, he told law enforcement Whitney had done “unspeakable things” to him, according to court documents.

The minor told police he would go to Whitney’s house to play Xbox and watch television, court documents state. The minor also told law enforcement that Whitney would give him large amounts of money, sometimes hundreds of dollars at a time, knowing the boy’s family was not financially stable.

Court documents state the minor was 12 or 13 years old when he was first touched inappropriately by Whitney. The minor did not tell anyone of the assault at the time and continued to go over to Whitney’s house, according to court documents.

Over the next two years, the minor told law enforcement the abuse got worse, with Whitney touching and kissing the boy and forcing him to touch Whitney’s genitals.

The minor also described to police looking at child pornography on Whitney’s computer. Based on the details given by the minor, the Aberdeen Police Department obtained a search warrant, seized Whitney’s computer and sent it to the Bellevue Police Department for a forensics investigation.

The warrant found photographs on Whitney’s computer that showed predominately young males, many appearing to be under the age of 18, engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to court papers. A video found on Whitney’s computer showed a girl, expected to be approximately 4 or 5 years old, performing oral sex on an unknown adult male.

Whitney’s sexual contact with the minor male is the basis for the molestation charge, while the images found on his computer account for the child pornography charges.

A trial date has not yet been set.