BENTONVILLE (KFSM) — A Siloam Springs woman has pleaded not guilty to allegations that she tried to frame her husband by downloading child pornography on a phone he used and telling police he raped a 13-year-old girl.
Cherie Renee Bolton, 33, is charged with one count of possessing child pornography and one count of filing a false police report — both felonies.
Bolton told Siloam Springs police she was upset that her husband wouldn’t let her see their kids, and she downloaded the illicit images while she was using methamphetamine and in the middle of a manic episode, according to a probable cause report.
Bolton first went to police on May 24, 2017, and said her husband attacked her when she caught him raping the girl, according to a probable cause affidavit.
Bolton also presented police with three images of child pornography and showed them a possible bruise on her ribs that investigators were unable to positively identify.
Bolton said she waited to make a report because she feared retaliation from her husband.
But investigators later discovered that Bolton’s husband had kicked her out of their home on May 22, 2017. Police then extracted the photos from the phone and found Bolton downloaded the images May 23, 2017.
Bolton initially denied knowing how the images got on the phone, but after further questioning, said she downloaded them because she was upset her husband was trying to keep her from seeing their kids.
Bolton’s husband and the girl also denied any sexual abuse occurred.
Bolton said after being kicked out of the house, she went to a motel in West Siloam Springs, Okla., where she did meth with a man she met off Craigslist. She said the man kicked her out of the room after an argument.
Bolton believed she downloaded the images while she was at the motel, but said she couldn’t be sure, according to the affidavit.
She added that she was outside Ozark Guidance in Siloam Springs at some point, but later woke up at Springwood’s Behavioral Health in Fayetteville.
Bolton is free on a $75,000 bond. She has an omnibus hearing set for April 12 in Benton County Circuit Court.
