20 Men Charged In Undercover Child Sex Sting

CARTERSVILLE, GA — Several Bartow County men have been arrested and charged as part of an undercover operation designed to crack down on people who arranged to meet children for sexual purposes, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Monday.

This four-day effort, dubbed Operation Paladin, centered in Bartow County and was coordinated by Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit and the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office.

Officials arrested 20 people over the four-day period beginning Nov. 1, and the offenders were charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 2007 and/or Trafficking of Persons for Labor or Sexual Servitude. More charges could be forthcoming, the GBI said.

The arrestees, ranging in age from 20 to 59, traveled from areas around Northwest Georgia with the intent to meet a child for sex, the GBI said. One person who was arrested was a registered sex offender, and multiple people who were arrested were also in possession of suspected illegal drugs. One person was arrested in possession of a firearm. Twenty-four mobile phones were seized as evidence during the operation.

The names, ages, residences, occupations and charges of those arrested in Bartow County are:

Randall Martin Ball, 25, of Acworth; grocery stocker; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Bailey Gordon Brown, 29, of Jasper; emergency home repair responder; charged with Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Richard Douglas Brown, 53, of Trion; mill worker; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Steven Aubrey Byers, 33, of Jasper; electrician; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Bryan Russell Cain, 36, of Calhoun; unemployed/college student; charged with Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Jeffrey Douglas Coleman, 52, of Cartersville; glass technician; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Michael David Crider, 51, of Cartersville; CAD operator; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Daniel Leonard Dorough, 56, of Cartersville; self-employed landscaper; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Daniel Mark Ewart, 38, of Cartersville; tow truck driver; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Shawn Vernon Antoine Jeffrey, 26, of Powder Springs; pest control technician; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Clarence Walker Mann, 59, of Kingston; truck driver; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention and felony Purchase, Possess, Manufacture, Distribute, or Sale Marijuana.

Vernale Rolston Mascall, 25, of Cartersville; fast food worker; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Rick Phegel Paul, 25, of Dallas; certified nursing assistant; charged with Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Isaac Sanchez, 20, of Summerville; painter; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Charlie Warren Smith III, 45, of Cartersville; patient care technician; charged with Computer Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Thomas Jackson Smith, 43 of Rome; delivery driver; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Timothy Warren Smith, 57, of Cartersville; customer service; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

Conner William Thrash, 28, of Woodstock; truck driver; charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor Servitude.

Michael John Turner, 37, of Villa Rica; unemployed; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention, crossing of guard lines with weapons, intoxicants, or drugs without consent, Possession of Methamphetamine and Marijuana-possess less than an ounce.

Michael Sean Wills, 34, of Cartersville; tree service employee; charged with Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention.

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“This operation is a prime example of interagency planning and cooperation. I am proud that we were able to host the Georgia ICAC Task Force at our facility to carry it out" said Bartow County Sheriff Clark Millsap. "Moreover, I hope that these arrests send a loud and clear message: the Bartow County Sheriff’s Office has a zero-tolerance policy for exploitation of children. We will continue to work with the ICAC Task Force whenever needed to stop these predators. Bartow County is a great community and we will work relentlessly to ensure that it remains a safe place for our children.”

The goal of the operation was to track down and apprehend people who communicate online with children and travel to meet them for the purpose of engaging in a sex act. The operation also targeted people who are willing to exploit children by purchasing sex with a minor.

"Online child predators visit chat rooms and websites on the internet, find children, begin conversations with them, introduce sexual content and arrange a meeting with the children for the purpose of having sex," the GBI said, adding the children these predators target are both boys and girls.

Over the course of the operation, more than 30 cases were established that met the threshold for arrest. Twenty of those cases were concluded with arrests. During the operation, investigators had more than 200 exchanges with subjects on various social media or internet platforms. Many of those were exchanges in which the person initiated contact with whom they believed to be a minor and directed the conversation towards sex.

In some of those cases, the subject introduced obscene or lewd content, often exposing the minor (undercover) to pornography or requesting the child take nude or pornographic images for them. About half of the exchanges involved websites used for dating, socializing, or even websites used for classified advertisements.

"Although some websites promote themselves as being for “adults-only” it is not uncommon for law enforcement to work cases in which children access these sites, establish profiles claiming to be older, and then find themselves vulnerable to victimization, harassment, blackmail, or assault," the GBI noted. "Several subjects were identified as communicating simultaneously with multiple investigators posing as minors. Such activity confirms what investigators uncover conducting these types of investigations: that many predators specifically seek out minors on such websites to groom them as potential victims for sexual contact."

Twelve law enforcement agencies assisted the GBI in Operation Paladin: Bartow-Cartersville Drug Task Force, Cartersville Police Department, Columbus Police Department, Conyers Police Department, Floyd County Police Department, Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office, GBI-Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis Center (GISAC), Gwinnett County Police Department, Hall County Sheriff’s Office, Marietta Police Department, Polk County Police Department and the United States Department of Homeland Security.

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