Colleton County Man Arrested on Criminal Solicitation of a Minor and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Brandon Pierson, 38, of Walterboro, S.C., on three charges connected to the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Goose Creek Police Department made the arrest. Investigators with the Colleton County Sheriff's Office, also a member of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation. 

Investigators state Pierson solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex, encouraged them to produce child sexual abuse material*, and sent sexually explicit images to a person he believed to be a minor.

Pierson was arrested on December 13, 2023. He is charged with one count of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; one count of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment; and one count of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under age eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 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.