(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Feb. 8, 2021 – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Bradley Evan Wilson, 42, of Greenville, S.C., and Jerry Lee Ruffner, Jr., 46, of Simpsonville, S.C., on 15 total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Wilson and Ruffner.  Investigators state both Wilson and Ruffner distributed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

Wilson was arrested on February 4, 2021. He is charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

Ruffner was arrested on February 5, 2021. He is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

Both cases 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.