The Associated Press
MIAMI (AP) -- The Fort Lauderdale man suspected of fatally shooting a sheriff’s deputy during a search for child pornography told a judge Friday that he has a mental illness caused by AIDS.
Kenneth Wilk, 42, told U.S. Magistrate Judge John O’Sullivan he has “full-blown AIDS and AIDS dementia.” Wilk is suspected of fatally shooting Detective Todd Fatta and wounding Sgt. Angelo Cedeno during a raid of his Fort Lauderdale home Thursday.
There was no independent confirmation Wilk has AIDS or dementia. AIDS dementia can cause mood swings and problems with a person’s ability to understand situations.
Wilk is charged federally with conspiring to possess child pornography and trying to obstruct justice by corrupting, harassing or intimidating a witness. State or federal charges for the Fatta’s death and Cedeno’s shooting are pending, officials said. Cedeno was in good condition Friday at North Broward Medical Center.
Officials said Wilk has a history of making threats against law enforcement officers and felt detectives unfairly targeted him and his boyfriend in a child pornography investigation, officials and others said.
U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez, who rarely attends suspects’ first court appearances, told the judge Friday he wanted Wilk detained because “he’s a great danger to the community.” Officials say Wilk once listed his hobby as “hunting cops” on an Internet site. Wilk is jailed pending a detention hearing Tuesday.
Wilk told the judge Friday he is unemployed and could not afford to hire an attorney.
O’Sullivan appointed a private attorney, since the public defender is already assigned to Wilk’s boyfriend, Kelly Ray Jones, on an earlier child pornography arrest.
Wilk receives $4,800 a month in Social Security and private disability and is part-owner of the $300,000 home he shares with Jones. O’Sullivan ordered he pay $2,000 toward the cost of his attorney.
Fatta and Cedeno were part of a multi-agency Law Enforcement Against Child Harm, which combats child porn. The team arrived at the Wilk’s home Thursday to serve a search warrant to find additional material stemming from the arrest of Jones in July. Fatta and Cedeno were shot when they entered the house. Deputies fired at Wilk, but he was not hit.
Jones and Wilk had long been known to police.
In February 2001, Jones was arrested and placed on house arrest on charges of using the Internet to send illicit images of children to an undercover St. Lucie County Sheriff’s detective, Neil Spector. Jones was arrested again in July of that year and again last month on federal child pornography charges. He remains jailed.
Wilk said police “set Kelly Ray up,” said Bobby Alpert, who ran the now-closed acting studio Wilk once took classes at.
Alpert also said Wilk was upset about the financial toll Jones’ legal troubles was taking on him, and was worried about losing his house.
“He was doing everything he could to help his boyfriend,” he said. Wilk had previous charges of threatening an FBI agent and Spector, but was not prosecuted.
Fatta, 33, was a 9-year veteran at the sheriff’s office. He had a degree in criminal justice, three years in the military as a security officer, a year as an armed security guard before being hired by Broward in 1995.
“He loved his job,” said Trenner Tompkins, who lived next door to Fatta for three years in Pompano Beach. “It was what he lived for, what he breathed.”