Summerville Man Arrested on Criminal Sexual Conduct with a Minor and Related Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Dillion David Leopold, 31, of Summerville, S.C., on five total charges connected to the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor.  Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Mount Pleasant Police Department and Summerville Police Department made the arrests.  

Investigators state Leopold solicited a person he believed to be a minor for sex and sent sexually explicit images to a person he believed to be a minor. Investigators state that while Leopold was out on bond on those charges, they discovered he was in possession of child sexual abuse material*. They also discovered Leopold engaged in criminal sexual conduct with a minor, as well as produced sexually explicit images of a minor. 

Leopold was arrested on August 9, 2022. 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, and one count of attempted dissemination of obscene material to a person under the age of eighteen (§16-15-345), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

While out on bond for the first set of charges, Leopold was arrested on August 16, 2022 for the second set of charges. 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.

The next day, on August 17, 2022, while still in jail on the second set of charges, Leopold was served with arrest warrants on the third set of charges. He is charged with one count of criminal sexual conduct with a minor (§16-3-655(B)(1)); and one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, first degree (§16-15-395), a felony offense punishable by up to 20 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.