Left: Criminal complaint exhibits show defendant Adam Stafford King at the Lehigh Valley Kennel Club Star of Bethlehem Dog Show, where he served as judge, held in Allentown, Penn., on and around December 13-15, 2019. Right: A baby outfit found in illicit photos and messages allegedly sent by King was discovered in a closet by the FBI during a search.
He bragged about drugging children with Benadryl, abusing family members — but allegedly stopping short of full intercourse because he didn’t want to “send them home damaged” — and then, federal prosecutors allege in a federal complaint, dog show judge and veterinarian Adam Stafford King boasted about assaulting his unborn child a week before the baby was to be delivered.
Now King is facing a single federal charge of distributing child pornography, and whether his allegedly perverse commentary unearthed by investigators is true or whether additional charges will be brought is not yet known.
King, according to court records, is a veterinary ophthalmologist at MedVet Chicago in Avondale, Illinois. He is also a known dog breeder and American Kennel Club certified dog show judge who was expected to preside at the 2024 Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Prosecutors said the FBI started looking into King in October as they were probing other online child sex assault crimes in New York. It came to their attention during the search of a New York suspect’s home and devices that the person had been in contact with King via the men-seeking-men dating app Scruff.
According to the criminal complaint, FBI agents quickly learned that King was using the handle “pervchidude” on Telegram as well and that he sent several images and videos to their New York subject.
An undercover FBI agent started chatting with King in late 2023 through early 2024 and during that time, King is accused of stating “that he and his husband are expecting a child by surrogate ‘due in spring’ and that he plans to sexually assault the child after it is born.”
In that same conversation, King allegedly sent a photo of an infant’s outfit and sent texts stating that he looked forward to inviting friends over to assault the infant though his husband, King wrote, was a “non-perv.”
Over the texts, the FBI said it was able to confirm the sender of the photo was King because he provided several pieces of identifying information including his first name, state of residence, information about his works in medicine specializing in the eyes. He also allegedly sent FBI agents a picture of his penis with medical scrubs visible.
In several of the chats, he allegedly sent videos or photos of children being abused by adults and discussed preferring children in the “single digits.”
“The Chicago Subject further wrote, “0-9 [years old] my fav … B[oy] and g[irl], though prefer b[oy],” the criminal complaint states, referring to King.
The FBI said he also sent an ultrasound photo.
King claimed to have abused his nieces and nephews as well, though he has not been charged with any crimes related to these claims at this time. But according to the FBI, King told an agent that he had “done almost everything” with them, writing: “‘Not full on f——. can’t send them home damaged … But I’ve gotten in them … I generally sedate them.”
He would do this by using Benadryl because it was “easy” and provided a “wide safety margin.”
The FBI executed a search warrant on his Elburn, Illinois, home on March 5 and located him in his shower allegedly clutching his cellphone as FBI agents announced they were searching the home.
“Law enforcement found a baby outfit in the residence consistent with the image sent by the Chicago subject over Telegram to the New York subject in support of @pervchidude’s claims of being a father-to-be,” the federal complaint notes.
When he was arrested on March 21, it was a week before what prosecutors and FBI agents said was King’s plan to see the surrogate mother of his expected child in California.
King is being detained without bond.
In a 13-page motion to the court, prosecutors urged that King remain in jail pending trial. Not only was his conduct, “to be blunt, heinous,” U.S. attorneys wrote, but there had been an incident in 2017 involving King that solidified their request.
That April, the Illinois Attorney General’s Office alerted the Aurora Police Department in Illinois that Google had pinged officials about two pornographic images tied to an email account, “[email protected].” There was also a secondary email account associated with that one.
Because the age of the children in the photos were not clear, investigators had to dig deeper and eventually traced the secondary email to King and sought out an interview with him at his home. Police met with King and his husband and while King confirmed the secondary email address was his, he denied having access to the primary “seth.curtis223” account.
“Adam appeared very nervous and hesitant to answer questions,” one officer wrote in a post-interview report, court records show. “I explained to him that he was not under arrest and we were just having a conversation. I explained to him that I was speaking to him because I was part of an initiative to combat child exploitation and part of my responsibility was to identify subjects who may need assistance and offer advice.”
At the end of the interview, the officer said he established that both King and his husband used the same laptop and accessed Tumbler to view pornography though neither wanted to admit they were using the suspected email account. It wouldn’t be until March 5 that police would determine they had probable cause to search King’s home and devices.
Court records indicate King’s husband was shown some of the chats where King discussed abusing their unborn surrogate child.
Mid-arrest, King’s husband also allegedly appeared outraged at the timing, given that King was preparing to go pick up the infant in just a week. Arresting officers noted that King’s husband remarked: “You’re doing this now so he can’t get on the plane?”
The AKC and MedVet did not immediately respond to a request for comment to Law&Crime. Nor did an attorney for King.
King’s next court appearance in Illinois is April 1.
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