Eatonton man snared in statewide GBI child pornography probe

An Eatonton man is among 18 people arrested in a three-month GBI child pornography investigation.

David Christopher Sammons, 29, of Putnam County, who faces charges in the operation, is identified in a GBI news release as an aerospace company employee.

Sammons is accused of having a sexually explicit image of two girls and a boy in a bath tub, according to the arrest warrant.

Beginning in July, the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force focused on identifying people producing, distributing or possessing images of child pornography, which the GBI describes as the photographic evidence of the sexual assault of a child.

Armed with two dozen search warrants Wednesday, officers searched locations in 16 counties in what is known as Operation Secret Guardian.

Investigators examined 69 digital devices and seized 232 pieces of digital equipment during the operation.

More arrests are expected after the seized devices are examined.

The GBI worked with 32 other agencies, including the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office, on Operation Secret Guardian.

The following people also were arrested along with Sammons:

Earl Benson, 68, a contract employee from Dawsonville; Joseph Brantley, 59, an auto parts store worker from Waynesboro; Jeremy Converse, 37, a tow truck driver from Dallas; Casilvo Valdivi Crisanto, 42, a fast food worker from Glynn County; Isidro Delibrado, 49, a flooring installer from Marietta; Richard Ellis Ford, 42, a fast food worker from Rossville; Jaco Armani Griggs, 29, of Covington; Tyler Kauffman, 23, of Marietta; Jason Kingry, 43, a construction worker from Atlanta; Bobby Justin Lynn, 29, a retail worker from Buford; Uriah McCullers, 37, a Walton County sheriff’s deputy from Bethlehem; Julio Gomez Munoz, 28, a restaurant worker from Roswell; Samuel Oh, 30, a member of the military from Hinesville; Juan Cesar Olvera, 38, a restaurant worker from Athens; Matthew Payton, 32, a fast food worker from Smyrna; Christopher Rinker, 46, an engineer from Hamilton and Colby Harrison Waldroup, 23, from Monroe.

The commander of the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, GBI Special Agent in Charge Debbie Garner commended those working the detail.

“The investigators who work child exploitation cases are some of the most dedicated law enforcement officers there are, despite the psychological toll this type of investigation exacts on them,” Garner said in the release.

The task force made 196 arrests in 2014, adding to a total of more than 1,500 arrests since it formed in 2002.

To contact writer Liz Fabian, call 744-4303 and follow her on Twitter@liz_lines.

This story was originally published October 15, 2015 at 6:36 PM.