Former Wise County deputy sentenced for taking nude photos of sex offenders

A former deputy with the Wise County Sheriff’s Department was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison Wednesday for taking nude photographs of sex offenders.

Chad Alan Hightower, 42, who had served as the contact for convicted sex offenders in Wise County, took naked photographs of two of them from November 2013 until July 2014, federal agents said.

“There was bad judgment on my part,” Hightower said Wednesday morning in a federal courtroom before his sentence was announced. “If I could go back in time and change what I did, I would.”

Hightower’s attorney Paul Belew noted to the court that Hightower pleaded guilty to the charges early in the case and cooperated with authorities.

Hightower was sentenced Wednesday before a federal magistrate in Fort Worth as part of a plea agreement he reached with federal prosecutors.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law in September 2015.

Hightower got eight months in prison on each count, and was ordered to serve them consecutively. He also was fined $3,000 and was placed on supervised release for a year after his release.

Hightower, who surrendered his peace officer’s license on Tuesday, remains free on bond, but he is to report to prison officials Feb. 8.

Hightower resigned from the Wise County Sheriff’s Department in September 2014, officials said. Belew told the court that Hightower has been working for a funeral escort service.

According to federal court documents describing the case, convicted sex offenders who lived in Wise County had to register, as required by law, with Hightower in November 2013.

He drove to a sex offender’s home on Nov. 18, 2013, and informed him that because of a change to the state’s sex offender registry law, he had to take nude photographs of him. The offender complied.

No such state law exists. Federal agents said Hightower took the photos for his own personal use.

Then, on June 17, 2014, another convicted sex offender went to Hightower’s office to complete the necessary paperwork for the registry. Hightower told the offender that he had to take nude photographs of him because of new state registration procedures. Hightower escorted the man to a bathroom, where he took the photographs.

The same man returned to the Wise County Sheriff’s Department office on July 23, 2014, to update some information. Hightower told him that the photos that were taken in June were defective and that he had to take a new set of photographs.

The deputy ordered the offender into his car and drove to the county’s impound yard, according to federal agents. At the impound’s office, Hightower ordered the sex offender to undress and took photographs.

His sentencing had been postponed after the death of his mother in early December.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 10:59 AM with the headline "Former Wise County deputy sentenced for taking nude photos of sex offenders."