GAINESVILLE, Ga. — A Houston, Texas man has been sentenced for his involvement in running a chat group that disseminated pornographic material involving children to predators around the United States – including Georgia.

Georgia agents worked with federal investigators to bring Terence Dewayne Dixon into custody for operating a chat group he called “House of 1000 Littles.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the group was “dedicated to sharing child pornography and discussing child molestation.”

Federal prosecutors said that, as early as November 2017, Dixon created the chat group where links to the material were shared for almost a year.

Prosecutors said that, on a single day in January 2018, Dixon, known as “Devilman Crybaby” online, shared 21 links containing child porn with the group. And a month later he bragged that his link contained 5,000 videos of child pornography.

“Investigators identified the majority of his chat group living all across the United States,” prosecutors said, “including in the state of California, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Tennessee.”

“Dixon disseminated horrific images of child pornography to members of his online chat group,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “He also encouraged others to share child pornography that fueled a demand for the violent exploitation of children.”

Those actions earned the 38-year-old man a charge of conspiracy to advertise child pornography on July 23 following a guilty plea. As such, was sentenced to 25 years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release. He is also ordered to register as a sex offender upon release.

“The monsters that visited this site and found pleasure in exploiting innocent children now have one less place to sow their evil seeds and one less organizer to help them do it. Dixon’s sentencing is warning to those who revel in and peddle this filth,“ said acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Hammer, who oversees Homeland Security Investigations operations in Georgia and Alabama.

Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds also commented on the case pledging the agency to root out similar acts and bringing those responsible to justice.

“For this defendant to take the images of innocent children and pass them around in order to exploit them and use them to arouse in a sexual nature is absolutely despicable,” Reynolds said. “The GBI is committed to working with our partners to stop this criminal behavior and protect our young ones.”

Prosecutors said this isn’t Dixon’s first run-in with the law under similar circumstances. He was also convicted in 2001 of the aggravated sexual assault of a nine-year-old child.

Halloween is nearly here and for many, that means costumes and candy…and that’s about it.

Some parents, however, are probably thinking about their kids’ safety just as much as their inevitable sugar high.

Houston County Assistant District Attorney Eric Edwards says it’s “probably the only point in the year when most parents will be letting their kids go to strangers’ houses and asking for candy.”

When a child knocks on a door, it’s hard to know who’s waiting behind it.

Law enforcement agencies in central Georgia are working to keep kids safe this Halloween.

Sergeant Clay Williams with the Bibb County Sheriff’s Office says people on the sex offender registry do not need to report to county officials for supervision on the night of Halloween like some do in a city near Augusta, but he says police will be conducting random checks at sex offenders’ homes on October 31.

In Houston County, Chief Patrick Cole with the Department of Community Supervision’s Warner Robins office says a similar policy is in place. People on the registry don’t need to turn themselves in, but law enforcement will be checking on where registered sex offenders are the night of Halloween.

Houston County assistant district attorney Eric Edwards says parents also have a role to play “because this is probably the only time of the year parents are going to be letting their kids go to strangers houses…asking for candy.”

Here are two ways to help make sure the door they knock on doesn’t belong to a registered sex offender.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation maintains a statewide sex offender registry with the home addresses of everyone on it. You can look up specific streets and see if any registered sex offenders live there. The website can be accessed here.

You can also download this mobile app from the Department of Justice. The app provides information on sex offenders who have registered addresses near the current location of the mobile device and can be used on the go.

MACON, Ga. — It’s Halloween eve, and while kids are preparing for trick-or-treating, law enforcement is preparing to keep those children safe from sex offenders. 

This week, a federal judge ruled that posting warning signs outside some offenders’ homes in Butts County is unconstitutional.

While that decision was specific to three sex offenders in Butts County, Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman says his deputies will now abide by this example.

“For the past several years, we’ve closely monitored [sex offenders] and placed signs in their yards, warning anyone that would go there to trick-or-treat that this residence was a convicted sex offender,” says Freeman. 

Freeman says if the offender didn’t want to place a sign in their yard, they reported to the sheriff’s office on the night of October 31st, but this year, he says offenders aren’t required to do either.

That decision comes after Federal Judge Marc Treadwell ruled it was unconstitutional for Butts County Sheriff Gary Long to place a similar notice on some offenders’ front doors.

Christopher Reed, Reginald Holden, and Corey McClendon asked for an injunction against Long at the beginning of October after learning that he planned to post signs outside their homes again this year on Halloween. 

“This is vanity. This is them picking on a particularly vulnerable group of citizens,” says the plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Yurachek. “They’re just looking to live quiet, private lives.”

On Tuesday, Judge Treadwell ruled in the sex offenders’ favor, saying the three men appeared to be rehabilitated and living law-abiding lives. He wrote that there was no evidence that the three posed any threat to children.

“It’s my understanding that the ruling was specifically for the three individuals that sued, that were in Butts County. However, it’s my theory that if it applied to those three, what would make it not apply to the others? And I just don’t want to find out in federal court that it did apply to those,” says Freeman. 

Freeman says ahead of trick-or-treat time, his deputies are “double-checking” on each Monroe County sex offender’s home address, and will be patrolling the streets on Halloween night.

The Georgia sex offender registry is public and is open to everyone online. You can type in your address to see if any registered sex offenders live near you or on the streets you’re planning to take your children trick-or-treating on.

To view the registry, click here. 

Taking a closer look at other Central Georgia counties, 13WMAZ asked some other law enforcement agencies about their Halloween plans. 

We couldn’t find any other departments posting signs to alert people about sex offenders, but here’s what some agencies are doing:

– Sergeant Tim Leonard with Houston County’s Sexual Offender Registry also says officers will drive past sex offenders houses to check up.

– Dublin Police Chief Tim Chatman says they don’t have any specific requirements for sex offenders, but will have extra officers on the street to keep kids safe.

– Peach County requires sex offenders on probation to come to the courthouse for a few hours, according to Sheriff Terry Deese.

– Baldwin County Sheriff Bill Massee says they’ll have two officers assigned to monitor the county’s sex offenders Thursday.

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — A child sex offender accused of failing to register was arrested on Wednesday morning in Beaumont after a search warrant was carried out at a Beaumont home. 

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office found ‘evidence’ after a tip was received through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the upload of child pornography to a cloud storage account. 

Johnny Carl Hutson, 56, was arrested on a failure to register as a sex offender warrant  and his bond has been set at $250,000. 

Hutson was convicted in 2009 of aggravated sexual assault of a child and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Officials say he didn’t continue to register as a sex offender once placed on parole. 

The investigation continues and investigators expect additional charges to be filed on Hutson. 

From a Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office news release:

This morning, the 30th day of September 2020, investigators with the Office of Attorney General’s Child Exploitation Unit along Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office Investigators executed an evidentiary search warrant at a residence in Beaumont for Possession or Promotion of Child Pornography.

This search warrant is the result a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline Report involving the upload of child pornography to a cloud storage account.

Evidence was seized and 56 year old Johnny Carl Hutson was arrested on a Failure to Register as a Sex Offender warrant. His bond was set at $250,000.00.

Hutson was previously convicted in 2008 of Aggravated Sexual Assault of a Child and sentenced to 10 years in Texas Department of Corrections. Once paroled, he failed to continue to register as a Sex Offender.

This investigation continues and additional charges are expected to be filed.

HIDALGO, Texas — Border patrol agents in Texas recently arrested two convicted child predators who were allegedly in the country illegally, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

State troopers contacted the border patrol for help making a traffic stop in Hidalgo. Agents interviewed the occupants of the vehicle and determined both were in the country illegally.

The pair were arrested and during a check of their backgrounds, they found one of them was a registered sex offender. Jorge Gamez-Salas was previously convicted in Dallas County for Indecency with a Child where he was sentenced to two years confinement, records show.

Two days later, agents in the same area arrested Fernando Luna-Mendoza after he also allegedly entered the country illegally. Record checks revealed a previous arrest in Henderson County, southeast of Dallas, where he was convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a child, a first-degree felony. He received five years confinement in that case.

Both offenders were reported to be Mexican nationals.

“The public is encouraged to take a stand against crime in their communities and report suspicious activity at 800-863-9382,” noted border officials. “Even with the spread of the COVID-19 virus, human smugglers continue to try these brazen attempts with zero regard for the lives they endanger nor to the health of the citizens of our great nation.  The U.S. Border Patrol agents of the Rio Grande Valley Sector will continue to safeguard the nation and community against these criminal elements.”