Lexington County man arrested on 13 Child Sexual Abuse Material* charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Richard Channing Shealy, 53, on 13 charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors.

An investigator in the Attorney General’s Office initiated the case after seeing files shared online. The Attorney General’s Office referred the case to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department, which made the arrest. Investigators state that Shealy distributed and possessed files of child sexual abuse material.  

Shealy was arrested on March 26, 2026. He is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by two to 10 years imprisonment on each count, and 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

He will have a bond hearing today at 3:00 p.m. at the Lexington County Detention Center.

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed that 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.