Tunnel Hill man charged for child pornography; no victims appear to be local
Jun. 2—A Tunnel Hill man has been charged by the Whitfield County Sheriff's Office with computer or electronic pornography for "a large amount of video files containing obvious prepubescent children involved in various sex acts," according to a sheriff's office incident report.
Jose Dejesus Hernandez, 21, was arrested Thursday. He remained in the Whitfield County jail Tuesday afternoon.
The incident report said the investigation began May 20 with a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which operates a national tip line for child exploitation, including child pornography.
The case is being handled through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a multi-agency task force led in Georgia by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that includes the sheriff's office.
Sheriff's office Lt. Scott McAllister said of the images, "None of the children in them appear to be from this area (as best we can tell)."
"The investigation continues in regards to the search of other electronic devices belonging to Mr. Dejesus Hernandez and other case followup," McAllister said. "At this time there is no other offender believed to be involved in this incident."
