GREAT FALLS, Mont. — A former Montana police chief pleaded guilty Tuesday to distributing child pornography via social media, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Montana said.
William Daly Harrington, 43, entered his guilty plea before U.S. District Judge Brian Morris, who scheduled sentencing for April 13. A plea agreement calls for three other charges to be dismissed.
Harrington spent about 12 years with the East Helena Police Department and was promoted to chief in April 2019.
After pleading guilty, Harrington was released pending sentencing. He faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years to 20 years in prison, prosecutors said.
According to the criminal complaint, an FBI agent received a tip from Facebook in September 2020 that an account that was later determined to belong to Harrington shared a sexually explicit image involving a girl who was about 10 years old.
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