By Larry Judkins
Glenn County Observer
Former California Highway Patrol Officer Timothy Allen Horwath, 53, was sentenced on Tuesday, Sept. 26, to 10 years and one month in prison, and 10 years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $53,000 in restitution and a $5,100 special assessment for receipt of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.
According to court documents, Horwath was serving as a CHP officer in Redding while, in his nonworking time, he was receiving visual depictions of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including children as young as three and four years old being sexually abused by adult males.
While released on bond, Horwath violated the court conditions that he not use the internet or a device capable of accessing the internet.
Investigators caught Horwath with a home internet subscription and an iPhone that he had used to carry out dozens of WhatsApp encrypted conversations with females, many of which were sexual in nature.
Horwath’s bond was revoked following execution of a search warrant that confirmed he was violating his bond conditions.
This case was the product of an investigation by the California Highway Patrol’s Computer Crimes Investigation Unit and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christina McCall prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims.
For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about internet safety education.
Horwath was a CHP officer in Glenn County from early 2011 to late 2017. In March of 2011, this reporter responded to a fatal vehicle accident on Interstate 5.
At the accident scene, an incident occurred involving Horwath and myself. I later sent the following email to Valley Mirror Publisher Tim Crews:
Tim:
At the accident scene yesterday, after the body was finally removed from the car and was laid out on the ground, there was a very minor incident that you should know about because it could turn into a much bigger incident at a future event.
The cops were gathered all around the body, examining it, and although the body was almost totally obscured, I thought the scene itself might make a pretty good photo. I started to take a picture, but then a couple of the cops moved and I lost my shot, so I lowered my camera.
At the same time, I heard someone say, “Hey!” and I saw CHP Officer Timothy Horwath waving at me. He then gave me what can best be described as a “dirty look.” Clearly, he didn’t want me taking a picture of the body.
He never said anything to me, but very shortly afterwards (maybe a minute), he started talking to a Channel 7 reporter who was standing near him, setting up her video camera. I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but she responded, “Oh, no, no, no.” I am reasonably certain he was either asking her if she was planning on shooting the body, or telling her not to do so.
At any rate, I think someone needs to inform Officer Horwath it’s not one of his duties to regulate the news reporting ‑ not just for our sake but for his sake and the CHP’s sake. Like I said above, he didn’t actually interfere with anything I did, but the intent was there….
Larry
The next day, Crews forwarded the email to then-Lieutenant Shon L. Harris, Commander of the Willows Area Detachment of the CHP. Crews added:
Lt., this from my best and most mild-mannered reporter:
It is not up to CHP officers to edit the news.
We can’t have this. Please inform.
Tim
Harris responded:
Tim –
I agree, in principle, that we do not (nor do we desire or have the time to) edit the news. In reading Larry’s email to you though, it is unclear what my officer’s intentions were. I even approached the TV camera person myself and asked her, out of simple respect, to not include the vehicle license plate in the shot because I did not know how long it was going to take to notify next of kin and did not want them to find out about this fatality on the TV news. Things like a facial expression can be interpreted in many different ways by just as many people. And since my officer did not say anything to Larry, I am unclear as to what happened for sure. At a minimum though, I plan to talk to Officer Horwath about it.
Later, I also wrote to Harris:
Good afternoon, Lt. Harris:
Tim asked me to send you this information. I got in touch by email with the reporter from Channel 7 and asked her what Officer Horwath said to her. She replied, “He asked me if I was taking pictures of the body.”
Harris then asked me:
Did she say if he ordered her not to photograph it by chance?
I replied:
No, that was all she said.
At the same accident scene, a man and a boy were somberly watching the activities of the emergency responders. I didn’t talk to them, but I was under the impression that they were father and son, and the father was using this event for a teaching moment – sort of a real life “Every 15 Minutes”, the program the CHP offers high schools every year to educate students about the dangers of drunk driving.
The man and boy were not on the freeway. They were on the other side of the perimeter fence, on private property.
Nevertheless, Horwath began lecturing the man about the boy being present, telling the man that the child should not be allowed to view the accident scene.
I do not recall the reaction of the man.
Upon leaving Glenn County sometime after October of 2017, Horwath went to work for the Redding Area Office of the CHP. He later moved to Rancho Cordova.
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