Attorney General Alan Wilson announces Anderson man sentenced to 8 years for sexual exploitation of minors

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announces that on February 1, 2024, John Jeffrey Clark, pleaded guilty to two counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, 2^nd degree in Greenville County before the Honorable Alex Kinlaw.

On April 6, 2020, a woman called the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office to report that John Jeffrey Clark, a man she had known since high school, had asked her for pictures of her 12-year-old daughter in her underwear. Clark sometimes communicated with the woman using a Greenville County government email address although he resided in Anderson County. Investigator Michael Bryan with the Sheriff’s Office and a member of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office ICAC Task Force took over the case and learned Clark was a county detention officer. Investigator Bryan reviewed additional emails from Clark’s work account, locating conversations between him and a woman who lived in Virginia where Clark discussed sending a G-string or bikini underwear for the woman’s 7-year-old daughter to wear. He told the mother he knew “some moms that make money off their young daughters.”

Based on those conversations, Investigator Bryan believed Clark was actively seeking videos and pictures of young girls nude or partially nude for his own sexual gratification. Based on Clark living in Anderson, Investigator Bryan reached out for assistance from Investigator Kendall Cash with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, which is also a member of the ICAC task force. On April 15, 2020, investigators from both counties searched Clark’s home. Numerous electronic devices were seized. One cell phone was found unlocked in his bedroom with over 1,700 messages between Clark and the woman in Virginia discussing his sexual interest in young, prepubescent children, conversations about the mother and daughter engaging in sexual activities, and her daughter in various underwear Clark bought for her. Further, there were pictures and videos the woman sent him of her daughter nude or changing underwear, in the shower or bathtub, either with her mother or alone, and others where Clark sent the same images and videos back to her with his thoughts and comments on them. There were also illegal files sent between the two while Clark was at work at the Greenville County Detention Center. 

In addition to the conversations with the woman in Virginia, there were hundreds of other messages between him and other women in which he discussed their young daughters and his sexual thoughts. Investigators discovered conversations between Clark and at least four women who had young daughters. 

Judge Kinlaw sentenced Clark to eight years at the South Carolina Department of Corrections. He received credit for 330 days. He consented to the forfeiture of his seized electronic equipment and will have to register as a sex offender.

Assistant Attorney General Bethany Miles prosecuted the case for the Attorney General’s Office.