As a result of a proactive undercover investigation coordinated by the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office, the Floyd County Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force 4 (Four) people were arrested over a three-day period beginning Wednesday, October 11, 2023. Those arrested were charged with O.C.G.A. 16-12-100.2, Computer or Electronic Pornography and Child Exploitation Prevention Act of 2007. Additional charges and arrests may be forthcoming.
“Operation Child-Proof” was a three-day proactive effort that took several weeks of planning. The arrestees, ranging in age from 30 to 67, traveled from areas around Chattooga County, and every individual arrested during the operation believed they were going to a location to meet with a child and engage in prearranged sex acts.
The goal of “Operation Child-Proof” was to arrest persons who communicate with children on-line and then travel to meet them for the purpose of having sex. On-line 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 committing sexual acts with children under the age of 16. The children these predators target are both boys and girls.
During the multi-day operation, investigators had more than 15 exchanges with subjects on various social media or internet platforms. All of those were exchanges in which the subject 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 lude content, often exposing the minor (UC) to pornography or requesting the child take nude or pornographic images for them. About half of the exchanges involved websites and apps 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.
Along with those agencies who participated in the planning and coordinating of the operation, the following additional law enforcement agencies participated in “Operation Child–Proof”
1. Hall County Sheriff’s Office
2. Murray County Sheriff’s Office
3. United States Secret Service
4. Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit Drug Task Force
5. GBI-Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis Center (GISAC)
6. Summerville Police Department
7. Trion Police Department
8. Georgia State Patrol Post 38 Rome
9. Georgia Dept. of Community Supervision
The following were arrested and charged in Chattooga County as part of “Operation Child-Proof”:
1. Bobby Leon Brock, 41, Silver Creek, GA – Charges:
Use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, entice a child for illegal acts (Felony); Possession of Fentanyl (Felony); Possession of Fentanyl with intent to distribute (Felony); Trafficking in Fentanyl (Felony); Possession of Methamphetamine (Felony); Possession of Drug related objects; Crossing guard line with drugs (Felony)
2. William Alexander White, 30, Hixon TN – Charges: Obscene internet contact with a child; Electronically Furnishing obscene material to minors; Sexual exploitation of a child; Use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, entice a child for illegal acts (Felony)
3. Micah Van Donaldson, 41, Rome, GA – Charges: Use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, entice a child for illegal acts (Felony); Obscene internet contact with a child (Felony); Sexual exploitation of children.
4. Hugh Bradley Taff, 67, Rockmart, GA – Charges: Sexual Exploitation of a child (Felony)
