More than 2K images, videos of underage girls found on Macon store owner’s devices, deputies say
In early May, Bibb County sheriff’s investigators with a search warrant seized “computer items” from the north Macon home of a midstate computer-store owner, items that were later analyzed and found to contain alleged images of children in sex acts, according to an arrest warrant.
The arrest warrant, obtained Wednesday by The Telegraph through an open-records request, notes that when the authorities went to Bradley Hays Spiegel’s house on May 1, more than 2,000 “images and videos were found on two different devices.”
“The images and videos,” the warrant continues, “contained underage females posing in sexual positions and performing oral sex on adult males.”
Spiegel, 46, the owner of Quality Computer Systems on Riverside Drive in Macon, turned himself in and was jailed Tuesday. The warrant for his arrest, which was dated Oct. 20, charged him with 20 counts of sexual exploitation of children.
While the investigation into Spiegel may have begun six months ago, it is possible that charges were not brought until the devices seized at his home could be analyzed by the authorities.
Spiegel posted $38,700 bond and was released from the Bibb jail about seven hours after his arrest.
An incident report in late April noted that on Feb. 12, a Bibb sheriff’s deputy “was conducting an online investigation” on a network known “for offenders sharing images and videos of child sexual abuse material.”
The deputy, who works in the crimes-against-children division, scanned the network and, according to the report, “directly connected to the devices” later learned to allegedly be linked to Spiegel’s IP address.
Spiegel’s electronic devices were later seized at his house on Sweetbriar Trail off Bass Road.
A Bibb sheriff’s news release announcing the arrest said that “anyone with information in reference to Bradley Spiegel” was asked to call sheriff’s investigators at 478-751-7500, or to call Macon Regional CrimeStoppers at 1-877-68-CRIME.
This story was originally published November 6, 2019 at 2:35 PM.