MORNING HEADLINES | A bond hearing is set for today in federal court in Charleston for a county magistrate judge suspended by the state Supreme Court on Tuesday after being arrested for possession of child sexual abuse materials.
Charleston County Magistrate Judge James B. Gosnell Jr. was arrested Sept. 16 by federal Homeland Securitiy agents after they reportedly received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about multiple financial transactions with a purportedly known distributor of child sexual abuse material from the United Kingdom.
Agents are said to have found a flash drive containing numerous videos and images depicting child sexual abuse, including videos and images of minors, infants and toddlers engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Hours after Gosnell’s arrest, S.C. Chief Justice John Kittredge ordered his suspension from the magistrate bench until further notice. Gosnell’s county-issued devices, credentials and accounts were suspended almost immediately after Kittredge’s order.
Gosnell is the second state public official to be arrested this year on child pornography-related charges, according to The State. In June, former S.C Rep. R.J. May, R-Lexington, was indicted on multiple counts of distributing child pornography on the internet.
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