Anderson County man arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* charge

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Jerry Ellison Ballew, Jr., 59, of Belton, S.C., on one charge connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Anderson County Sheriff's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office and Homeland Security Investigations, both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which led them to Ballew. Investigators state Ballew possessed files of child sexual abuse material.

Ballew was arrested on July 14, 2026. He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and three counts of sex offender registry violations, first offense (§23-03-0470(A)), a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to a one-thousand-dollar fine, imprisonment up to three hundred and sixty-six days, or both.

Ballew was previously convicted in 1998 of criminal sexual conduct with a minor under 11 years of age (§16-3-655(A)(1)); and assault with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct (§16-3-656).

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.