Behind the Screens: Tracking down the numbers of child predators in Georgia
COLUMBUS, GA. (WRBL) — In response to recent concerns about online child exploitation,
the Georgia Bureau of Investigations Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes United has intensified efforts in Muscogee County.
WRBL's Crystal Whitman is working behind the scenes to find out how many operations have been done in Muscogee County in the last 12 months that target people who try to exploit minors through the internet.
One notable and recent operation, 'Operation Lights Out,' was a collaborative effort involving the GBI, the Muscogee County Sheriff's Office, and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children or ICAC Task Force.
For more information on the GBI's efforts and resources related to child exploitation prevention, visit their official website at gbi.georgia.gov.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WRBL.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Family of twins found dead on Bell Mountain dispute findings, says they were killed
The family of twins Qaadir Malik Lewis and Naazir Rahim Lewis are holding a news conference Friday morning laying out what they say are facts of the twins' disappearance and deaths. The bodies of the Lewis twins were found in Towns County on Bell Mountain in early March. While the deaths were eventually ruled a double-suicide by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Lewis family is calling it a 'lynching.' [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] On Friday, the family and their legal representatives are demanding justice for the two 19-year-olds. According to the announcement sent by attorneys for the Lewis Family, they want to 'dispel information and present the facts,' while calling for a new, 'thorough, transparent investigation' and calling for accountability for those responsible. The family is joined at the briefing in Lawrenceville by members of the NAACP Georgia State Conference an the NAACP Gwinnett County Branch, as well as community advocates and supporters. The GBI said they determined the method of the deaths based on the medical examiner's autopsy of the twins and other investigative findings, which agents shared with the Lewis family in May. In part, the GBI said cellular location data helped establish a timeline of when the Lewis twins left their home in Gwinnett County to go to Bell Mountain, and that while Naazir Lewis went to the airport on March 7, and had a ticket, 'he never caught the flight and returned home.' Additionally, the GBI said records show that Naazir Lewis bought ammunition for the gun used, which was delivered to their home in Gwinnett County on March 5. The GBI said internet search history from both of the twins' phones showed searches for how to load a gun, suicide rates in 2024 and related searches. Forensic evidence showed both twins fired a gun, according to the GBI, and a comprehensive investigation indicated the injures were self-inflicted. RELATED STORIES: GBI says teen brothers died of self-inflicted injuries on north GA mountain Autopsy results for twins found dead at top of GA mountain pending for more tests North GA volunteer firefighter arrested for sharing photos of twins' death scene on social media Twin brothers shot, killed in murder-suicide at top of mountain, GBI officials say If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Call 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]


Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Miami Herald
Man lost 2 decades of life in prison due to GA cops faking evidence, suit says
Joseph 'Joey' Watkins lost two decades of his life in the Georgia prison system because police faked evidence against him and teamed up with two Georgia Bureau of Investigation employees to convince jurors he was guilty of murder, according to a federal lawsuit he filed. When Watkins' murder conviction was thrown out by a September 2023 court order that affirmed his innocence, he 'had lived more than half his life in prison for a crime he did not commit,' his lawsuit filed May 30 says. His exoneration was secured after Watkins, his parents and the Georgia Innocence Project fought to overturn his conviction for years. Though Watkins had first been ruled out as a suspect in the killing of 20-year-old Isaac Dawkins, who was shot in the head while driving on a highway in Rome in 2000, he was pursued by Floyd County police and investigators with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to his complaint. Rome is about a 70-mile drive northwest from Atlanta. Officers from both agencies collaborated to hide evidence that would've shown Watkins was innocent and gave false testimonies at trial, the filing says. The complaint includes Watkins' post-conviction statement to the court on July 1, 2001, when he declared: 'I am not a murderer. … I will be back in court because I am not guilty of this.' 'They can send me to prison, but I just want the family to know that justice has not been done,' Watkins said. 'I had nothing to do with this, and I will say it till the day I die.' Now living freely in Floyd County, Watkins is suing over his wrongful imprisonment on five federal causes of action, including 14th Amendment violations. His lawsuit names Floyd County, three county police officers, the estate of a fourth officer who died in 2023, and two GBI employees, a special agent and a forensic analyst. The county and its police chief, Mark Wallace, didn't return McClatchy News' requests for comment June 5. GBI's public affairs director, Nelly Miles, declined McClatchy News' request for comment because of the pending litigation. Watkins is represented by attorneys with Pfeiffer Rudolf, a Charlotte, North Carolina-based law firm that specializes in wrongful conviction cases, and attorney Henry C. Debardeleben, of Weinberg, Wheeler, Hudgins, Gunn & Dial LLC in Atlanta. Attorney Sonya Pfeiffer, of Pfeiffer Rudolf, said in a statement to McClatchy News that 'since his release, and as recently as the past two months, Joey Watkins has been publicly and unjustly attacked despite his innocence.' 'The citizens of Floyd County, including the family of Isaac Dawkins, deserve to know the truth,' Pfeiffer said, adding that they intend to prove all facts made by the complaint. Watkins' constitutional claims against the defendants include: Concealment of exculpatory evidence Knowing and/or reckless use of false evidenceUnreasonable seizure and malicious prosecutionA municipal liability claimClaim for suppression of exculpatory evidence and deprivation of effective access to courts in violation of the First and Fourteenth amendments 'Worst prisons in Georgia' After Watkins' conviction, he sought a hearing to argue his innocence, but Floyd County police and GBI investigators continued to hide the truth, preventing his claim from being heard, the complaint says. He was then sentenced to life in prison, according to the complaint. Watkins, who was 20 years old at sentencing, told The Associated Press in September 2023 after his exoneration that he 'cried like a baby … just knowing that it was finally finished, finally over.' The efforts to hold Watkins responsible in Dawkins' killing, despite data from his cellphone that showed he wasn't in the area, led to his incarceration 'at some of the worst prisons in Georgia,' the complaint says. A group of inmates trying to steal from him broke Watkins' nose and front tooth in 2002 at Phillips State Prison 'when he resisted,' according to the filing. Throughout his incarceration, he faced further violence from inmates, resulting in a 'severe hernia in late 2005,' the complaint says. The medical care available in prison was lacking, according to the filing, which says Watkins 'had to live with the excruciating pain and persistent discomfort from that hernia until he was finally allowed to have surgery in 2016.' Watkins' wrongful imprisonment ended when he was released on bond in January 2023, before the case against him was dismissed months later,, according to the complaint. 'By the time he was set free, Watkins's parents were shells of their former selves,' the complaint says. 'Both were and remain in declining health and are broken financially after years of championing their son's cause and paying tens of thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees in efforts to prove their son's innocence and wrongful conviction.' Watkins demands a jury trial and seeks an unspecified amount in compensatory and punitive damages. He's asking the court for punitive damages that will 'deter such conduct by Defendants and other officials and law enforcement officers in the future,' the complaint says.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Legal fees in city audit by Troutman Sanders cost Columbus taxpayers more than $450,000
COLUMBUS, GA. () — The Columbus city government has spent a lot of tax money to investigate claims of illegal activity and misconduct in the city's Finance Department. The legal fees paid to an Atlanta law firm to investigate the city's Finance Department cost taxpayers more than $450,000, according to information obtained by WRBL through Georgia's Open Records Act. The city has paid the money to Troutman Pepper since 2023. That is strictly funds for legal fees alone and not the cost of a forensic audit that accompanied the Troutman Pepper investigation, according to City Attorney Clifton Fay. It started in August 2023 when City Councilor JoAnne Cogle made a surprise motion at the end of a council meeting. The motion by the District 7 representative was specific, asking for a particular law firm. 'I would like to make a motion that we hire Troutman and Pepper to work alongside our internal auditor in a previously approved audit with the intention and goal of providing a detailed report of some of the concerns that have surfaced,' Cogle read. Hiring Troutman Pepper came on the heels of an internal city audit of the Finance Department. That audit suggested, without evidence, that 45 million dollars was missing from city coffers. That is a claim that has been repeated as recently as this week when Mayor Skip Henderson had to correct a citizen who regurgitated it at a public hearing Tuesday night. Troutman Pepper's detailed report found serious operational and organizational issues inside the Finance Department, but nothing rose to a criminal level.. Troutman Pepper partner Charles Peeler said when his work concluded, 'There is no evidence to support the claim that there is $45.1 million of revenue missing.' That wasn't the only investigation. The Muscogee County Sheriff's Office recently concluded a 16-month investigation that resulted in two misdemeanor arrests. Finance Director Angelica Alexander was charged with obstruction. Former Revenue Manager Yvonne Ivey was charged with two counts of simple battery. None of the charges were connnected to alleged financial misconduct. But according to one councilor, the investigations created a deeper divide between the mayor, city manager, and some city councilors. 'We brought in Troutman Pepper and Charlie Peeler to kind of protect the auditor,' District 5 Councilor Charmanine Crabb told WRBL in a May 20 interview. 'They weren't cooperating with her. They were kind of attacking her. And he was supposed to be working for council. And all of a sudden, this investigation comes into play, and he's working for Isaiah and the mayor.' In that Muscogee County Sheriff's Office investigation that Crabb referenced in an interview with WRBL last month, she called Peeler 'disloyal, lacking honor, integrity, and respect.' Peeler is a former U.S. attorney. The Troutman Pepper investigation cost taxpayers $456,221.40. Councilor Glenn Davis and Crabb contend that part of that money paid for investigative work requested by Mayor Skip Henderson and the city manager. The investigations into the Finance Department were one of the reasons given last week when the city council voted 7-3 to terminate City Manager Isaiah Hugley just seven months short of his retirement. Crabb made that motion to fire Hugley and pay him through the end of December. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.