DURANT – The Durant Police Department released a statement on Thursday regarding its assistance in the arrest and investigation of Edward Lee Raiburn regarding the charge of child exploitation.
“In September 2019, the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force requested assistance from the Durant Police Department. An investigation discovered that 37-year-old Edward Lee Raiburn of Durant traveled on multiple occasions to Des Moines, Iowa, with the motivating purpose to engage in illicit sexual contact with a child. Raiburn also provided the child with a cellular phone to communicate with and exchanged sexually explicit photos with the child after he requested she take the photos.
“After a full extradition arrest warrant was issued for Raiburn in Iowa, he was arrested by the Durant Police Department with assistance from the Oklahoma District 19 District Attorney’s Office investigator. Raiburn was subsequently interviewed by Durant Police Department detectives, where he admitted to having sexual intercourse with the 12-year-old female victim when she resided in Durant. After the victim moved to Des Moines, Raiburn admitted to traveling to meet the victim secretly on at least two occasions and providing a cellular phone to the victim.”
A release from the Department of Justice for the Southern District of Iowa is also included.
“On October 22, 2020, Edward Lee Raiburn, age 38, formerly of Southern Oklahoma, appeared before United States District Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger and was sentenced to thirty years in prison for one count of production of child pornography announced United States Attorney Marc Krickbaum. Raiburn pleaded guilty to the offense on June 16, 2020. Following the completion of his prison term, Raiburn will be required to register as a sex offender and will be on supervised release for seven additional years.
“During the early summer of 2019, Raiburn sexually abused a child victim in Oklahoma. In August 2019, Raiburn traveled on multiple occasions from Oklahoma to the Des Moines metro with a motivating purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with the same child. Multiple times in August 2019, Raiburn requested the child take sexually explicit “selfie” photos. The child did so and, as requested, sent those sexually explicit photos to Raiburn via cellular phone.
“This case was investigated by the Iowa DCI’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Des Moines Police Department, Polk County Attorney’s Office, Durant (Oklahoma) Police Department, and the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.”
