Last Wednesday, former Oklahoma State Penitentiary chaplain David Prince received a 10-year suspended sentence after pleading no contest to a felony charge of possessing child sexual abuse material. He was fined $500, placed under two years of supervision by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, and must register as a sex offender. The case began after a state computer-monitoring alert triggered a months-long investigation into his online activity.
How state monitoring brought the case to light
According to NonDoc, analysts with OMES cyber operations and the Oklahoma Counter Terrorism Intelligence Center flagged repeated activity on Prince’s state-issued laptop, including visits to pornography sites and sexually explicit chats. Investigators allegedly documented Prince using two monitors at once, with one screen showing his prison chaplain work and the other allegedly used to view porn and take part in online conversations about sexual contact with minors. That activity triggered an OSBI probe and the search warrants that followed.
Search warrant, recovered images and Reddit posts
The court affidavit filed in the case says OSBI agents executed a Nov. 6, 2023 search warrant at Prince’s McAlester home and seized his phone. Forensic analysts found multiple images that met the legal definition of child sexual abuse material, the document states. One image allegedly depicted the sexual abuse of a child as young as 10, and the affidavit logs an Oct. 31, 2023 Reddit exchange in which an account using the name “u/daveatbigmac” claimed sexual contact with his children. Local coverage of the arrest and the church’s response was reported by KJRH.
Plea agreement and suspended sentence
Pittsburg County prosecutors offered a plea agreement that dismissed a computer-crimes count and amended the remaining allegation to felony possession of child pornography. Prince entered a no-contest plea, according to the court docket. Associate District Judge Tim Mills accepted the plea and imposed a 10-year suspended sentence, a $500 fine and two years of supervision by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, the docket shows. Court records also note that Prince entered and completed a nine-month residential program through Pure Life Ministries before the Feb. 4 hearing.
Legal note
Prince was originally charged Nov. 7, 2023 with procuring, producing, distributing or possessing juvenile pornography and violating Oklahoma’s computer crimes statute. The plea shifted the case to a single felony possession count, according to the court docket. As part of the sentence, he must register as a sex offender, a status that carries long-term reporting and residency restrictions under Oklahoma law. The public filings and affidavit lay out the timeline of the investigation, charges and final deal.
The case, which centers on material recovered from a personal device and chats captured on a state system, underscores ongoing questions about electronic monitoring inside government workplaces and how prosecutors navigate sensitive, high-profile investigations. Officials did not provide additional public comment by publication time.
