Travis King's Mom Addresses His Alleged Child Porn

Claudine Gates says her 'good boy' lost phone, leaving his Snapchat account vulnerable
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 26, 2023 7:46 AM CDT
Travis King's Mom Addresses His Alleged Child Porn
A portrait of Army Pvt. Travis King is displayed as his grandfather, Carl Gates, talks about his grandson on July 19, 2023, in Kenosha, Wis.   (AP Photo/Morry Gash, File)

The parents of Travis King plan to fight the charges against him "hard," they tell ABC News in an interview. Upon the Army private's release from a South Korean detention facility, where he was held for 47 days after allegedly assaulting a person at a nightclub, he was due to return to the US to face further disciplinary measures. Instead, he crossed into North Korea, where he spent another 71 days in custody. Now back in the US, he's charged with desertion, assaulting fellow soldiers, disobeying a superior officer, unlawful possession of alcohol, making a false statement, and possession of child pornography. But his mother and stepfather say the charges don't mesh with the "peaceful person" they know, who previously "deplored alcohol."

"A lot of it, I don't believe that it's true. Because that's something that Travis would not do," mother Claudine Gates tells ABC. "He's a good boy." Stepfather Dan Jovanovic says the child pornography charge is "100 percent-plus out of character" for King. The 23-year-old is accused of soliciting lewd images from a Snapchat user in exchange for money in early July, per ABC. But King's parents claim he lost his phone in South Korea, meaning someone else might have accessed his social media accounts. "I still feel inside that something happened to him. And he's the only one who can say what happened," Jovanovic tells ABC, per Axios.

But the couple note King was unable to discuss his time in North Korea when they reunited with him two weeks ago in El Paso, Texas, where he's being held in pre-trial detention. He said he'd signed paperwork that prevented him talking about his detainment and his reasons for entering the country. (North Korea claimed King "harbored ill feeling against inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination within the US army and was disillusioned about the unequal US society.") "I didn't think that they were doing any harm to him or anything ... but he seemed like he was still withdrawn," says Jovanovic. Gates describes her son as "very drowsy and tired." He also "seemed very worried." Both parents say they're concerned for his mental health. (More Travis King stories.)

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