Lowcountry Men Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Thomas C. Gotshall, 68, of Johns Island, S.C., and Jamie Talmadage Rivera, 18, of St. George, S.C., on four total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Charleston County Sheriff's Office and Dorchester County Sheriff's Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General's Office and Homeland Security Investigations, both also members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

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

Rivera was arrested on November 3, 2023. 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.

Gotshall was arrested on November 9, 2023. 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.

Gotshall was out on bond from a prior arrest on related charges in 2023.

Both of 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.