C.J. Gish
The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) arrested a Gainesville man and charged him with multiple counts of distributing child exploitation material on Tuesday.
According to a GPD press release, the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Division, with the assistance of SWAT, served a warrant at 3406 SW 31st Dr. #24A and arrested Jared Branham, 34, on four counts of distribution of child exploitation material and one count of transmitting of lewd or lascivious exhibition material.
The investigation started when GPD received two Cyber Tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The Cyber Tips indicated that a Snapchat and a Kik user shared media of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) through their platforms.
A GPD detective found that the media on both Snapchat and Kik was likely shared by the same user residing at the address and that the suspect was determined to be Branham. Communication from the Snapchat account showed that Branham allegedly chatted in a sexually graphic manner with a self-reported 13-year-old girl and he received a nude image from her.
GPD contacted Branham at his place of employment where he originally stated he didn’t remember sending the images but did acknowledge sending illegal content over the past year, citing he did it for the thrill and excitement. The GPD detective reviewed sanitized images with Branham and the suspect recognized two of the videos that were child sexual abuse material.