Two South Carolina men arrested on charges of possessing child sexual abuse material

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrests of Grant Neth Herman, 56, of Taylors, S.C., and Brett Kenneth Willis, 27, of Easley, S.C., on 12 total charges related to the sexual exploitation of minors. Investigators with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force and the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, also a member of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted in the investigations.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that led them to both Herman and Willis. Investigators allege that Herman distributed and possessed files containing child abuse material and that Willis possessed files containing child abuse material.

Herman was arrested on August 8, 2024. He is charged with Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Second Degree (§16-15-405), a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison; and Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, Third Degree (§16-15-410), a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Willis was arrested on August 14, 2024. He is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison per count.

These cases are prosecuted by the Public Prosecution Service.

Attorney General Wilson stressed that all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.

“Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM,” he noted, “is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. ‘Pornography’ can imply that the child was a consenting participant.” Worldwide, the term child pornography is being replaced with CSAM for this reason.