Low Country Men Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Daniel John Fallon, 41, of Beaufort, S.C., and Brandon Kendall Brooks, 33, of Charleston, S.C., on nine total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Beaufort Police Department and Charleston County Sheriff's Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office, Charleston Police Department, Beaufort County Sheriff's Office, U.S. Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security, all also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

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

Investigators state Fallon solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex.

Brooks was arrested on October 20, 2022. He is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count, and three 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.

Fallon was arrested on October 19, 2022. He is charged with three counts of criminal solicitation of a minor (§16-15-342), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count. 

These cases 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.