A former Kosciusko police officer has entered a plea of not guilty to five felony charges.
In May, Darren A. Cawthorn, 21, was charged with three counts of transmitting harmful information to a minor, one count of using a computer to seduce, solicit or lure a child who is misrepresenting their age, and one count of using a two-way device to facilitate a felony.
He entered a plea of not guilty to all charges on June 20. His attorneys also requested a waiver of appearance at any future hearings not including trial, a waiver of the formal reading of the information and/or indictment and requested that Cawthorn’s case be set for jury trial.
In the July 6 meeting of the Kosciusko Board of Aldermen, the board approved the termination of Cawthorn’s employment with the police department. Following his arrest, Cawthorn was on unpaid leave.
He is being represented by Florida criminal defense attorney Glenn M. Swiatek.
Cawthorn is set for a jury trial. A pretrial will be held on Aug. 24. Cawthorn’s appearance will be waived for pretrial proceedings. Judge Kelvin C. Wells will preside.
On July 6, Cawthorn and his lawyer appeared in a Florida courtroom after a motion was made to modify the conditions of his pretrial release, requesting to eliminate the requirement of wearing a GPS monitor. The motion was denied.
Walton County Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for Cawthorn’s arrest in early May, and he was taken into custody on May 5 by Attala County Sheriff’s deputies and transported to Florida.
According to a spokesperson with the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, Cawthorn was charged there because the alleged victim resides in the Florida county.
Cawthorn was officially charged with the felonies on May 13.
A judge set Cawthorn’s bail at $25,000, and he bonded out.
Cawthorn had no prior criminal history and underwent several background checks before becoming a police officer at the Kosciusko department.
He had been a certified police officer with the Kosciusko Police Department from March until his arrest in May.
According to a spokesperson at the Walton County Sheriff’s Office, the incident in which Cawthorn is charged occurred during a two-week span from December 2020 to January 2021. The communication was through Discord, a social media platform. Cawthorn was 19 when the communication started. The victim was 14 at the time but she had told Cawthorn that she was 16, according to the Walton County Sheriff’s Office.
The victim’s guardians reported multiple communications on the social media platform to the Sheriff’s Office. After an investigation, Cawthorn was identified as one of the people who chatted with the victim on the social media platform.
It took the Sheriff’s Office about a year of research to identify the parties and to collect information from the social media platform.
