John David Roy Atchison

John David Roy Atchison (August 28, 1954 – October 5, 2007) was an American assistant U.S. Attorney in Florida's northern district who was arrested on suspicion of soliciting sex with a 5-year-old girl. He was also a volunteer coach for girls' softball and basketball teams, and president of a youth sports association. He was arrested in a sex sting operation, and charged with "enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity using the Internet", "aggravated sexual abuse," and "traveling across state lines to have sex with someone under the age of 12". Atchison committed suicide by hanging himself in his prison cell in Milan, Michigan, three weeks later. He served as a prosecutor in the case against creationist Kent Hovind.

Early life and education Atchison earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Florida, and a Juris Doctor degree from Samford University Cumberland Law School in Birmingham, Alabama. and to the Georgia Bar in June 1985. He worked as an Assistant United States Attorney federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office in Pensacola, Florida, in northern Florida, working primarily on tax and financial crime cases.

Arrest On September 16, 2007, Atchison was arrested at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport in a sex crime sting operation undertaken by the FBI and the Macomb County Sheriff's Department.

He was charged with three felonies. They were: "enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity using the Internet", "aggravated sexual abuse," and "traveling across state lines to have sex with a child under the age of 12".

Suicide Two weeks after his arrest, Atchison tried to kill himself by hanging himself with a bed sheet in his jail cell in the Sanilac County Jail in Sandusky, Michigan, about 75 miles north of Detroit, on September 20, 2007. Atchison had been removed from a suicide watch the previous day after assuring his lawyer and a judge that he would not harm himself.

On October 5, 2007, Atchison committed suicide by hanging himself in his one-person prison cell in the special housing unit, for prisoners separated from the general population, of a prison in Milan, Michigan, about 36 miles southwest of Detroit, where he was on suicide watch. He was 53 years old.