(COLUMBIA, S.C.)  – Oct. 9, 2020 – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Dallas Eugene Walls, II, 55, of Heath Springs, S.C., on 12 charges connected to the sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office made the arrest.  Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the State Law Enforcement Division (SLED), all members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with this investigation.

Investigators state Walls engaged in multiple acts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, as well as produced and distributed files of child sexual abuse material*.  In addition, he engaged in the trafficking of a minor, as well as promoting the prostitution of a minor.

Walls was arrested on October 7, 2020. He is charged with one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree (§16-3-655)(B)1)); one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, third degree (§16-3-655)(C)); one count of sexual exploitation of a minor first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; two counts of  unlawful conduct toward a child (§63-5-70), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; one count of incest (§16-15-20); two counts of assault and battery, second degree (§16-3-600(D)(1); one count of trafficking in persons, a felony offense punishable by up to 30 years imprisonment; one count of engaging a child for sexual performance (§16-3-810), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment;  and one count of promoting the prostitution of a minor (§16-15-415), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment.

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. “Pornography” can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.