EX-KENTUCKY 911 DISPATCHER DEMANDED “NUDES” FROM GIRLS, FEDS SAY
September 24, 2019
Billy Kobin
MSN
A former Hardin County emergency dispatcher accused of creating fake social media profiles to obtain nude images of minors has been indicted in federal court.
Christopher J. Carroll, 20, is scheduled to appear Thursday for an arraignment hearing in U.S. District Court in Louisville after a grand jury indicted him Sept. 11 on one count of receiving child pornography.
The former Hardin County E-911 Center dispatcher was arrested in January and charged at the state level with more than 160 sex crimes after he allegedly created false social media profiles to “deceive minors to obtain nude images,” according to a previous news release from Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear's office.
Those state-level charges were dismissed in April as the U.S. Attorney's Office stepped in to handle the case at the federal level, according to court records.
Carroll's attorney, Brian Butler, declined to comment.
A criminal complaint filed in March details how Carroll was facing federal charges of attempted online enticement of two minors, receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
But a grand jury only indicted Carroll on the count of receiving child pornography, with the alleged criminal activity taking place between September 2016 and September 2018.
According to the complaint, a detective from Beshear's office received a complaint in September 2018 from two mothers in Meade and Hardin counties who had two daughters under the age of 18.
The two girls told their mothers they had been contacted by an anonymous person on social media sites, including Instagram and Snapchat, who claimed they had nude photos of the girls, according to the complaint.
The anonymous person threatened to share nude images of the girls with the girls' friends on social media if they did not send more nude photos, the complaint stated.
One victim said the social media threats had taken place continuously for about two years, according to the complaint.
Both victims said they believed Carroll, or "CJ," was a suspect and told the detective they knew him from a "previous acquaintance through their church," the complaint said.
Investigators issued subpoenas to Instagram and Snapchat for subscriber information and were able to trace an IP address to a camper in Cecilia, Kentucky, where Carroll lived with his grandmother, according to the complaint.
Investigators recovered several electronic devices from the trailer, including an iPad that contained "numerous nude and partially nude images of minors ... engaged in sexually explicit conduct," the complaint stated.
Some of the photos on the iPad were arranged in folders listed with the names of victims identified during the investigation, according to the complaint.
The U.S. Secret Service, Hardin County Sheriff’s Office and Elizabethtown Police Department worked with the attorney general office's Cyber Crimes Unit during the investigation.
Carroll was released from jail in February on a $100,000 bond, according to court records.
If convicted, he could face between five and 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine followed by a supervised release term of five years to life, according to federal statutes.
Message from Executive Director Laura A. Ahearn: Please visit our website at www.crimevictimscenter.org for news, information and resources in your community.
Follow on:
https://www.facebook.com/ParentsForMegansLaw
Comments are closed.