A Fannin County man charged with distributing child pornography is free on bond, having been released the same day he turned himself in at the Fannin County Detention Center.
Nathan Frank Hodgdon, 27, of 45 Messer Loop, Apartment 4, is charged with two felony counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children in separate warrants taken by Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Agent April Griffith. Each warrant accuses Hodgdon of distributing a visual medium containing lewd images of a female child between the ages of two and three years.
He was booked and released March 1, according to detention center records.
The case started when the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit (CEACC) received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) related to Hodgdon’s possession of child pornography via the internet.
Fannin County Investigator John Arp said the sheriff’s office was contacted by CEACC and traced the source of the alleged criminal activity. Due to the magnitude of what was discovered, the sheriff’s office turned the case back over to the GBI.
Sheriff’s Office investigators and GBI agents served a search warrant on the Hodgdon’s Messer Loop address February 23, but Hodgdon was not at home. Arp said enough evidence was found at the Messer Loop location to obtain warrants against the suspect for distributing child pornography.
A GBI statement said agents executed a similar warrant at an address in Cherokee County, Georgia. The results of that search have not been released.
Hodgdon was booked in Fannin County under a 128 Market Lane, Canton, Georgia, address.
He was released under a $30,000 heavily conditioned consent bond agreed to by Appalachian Judicial Circuit District Attorney B. Alison Sosebee and Hodgdon’s attorney, Tom Ford of The Ford Law Firm.
The bond includes 14 conditions, including:
•Random drug testing;
•No contact with any child under the age of 17 or with any disabled adult;
•No possession of any controlled substance;
•No contact with any witnesses;
•No consumption of alcoholic beverages;
•Have no pictures or photographs of any child under the age of 18; and,
•Must not possess any communication device capable of accessing the internet.
While under bond, Hodgdon is confined to the residence of Deborah Hodgdon in Canton, the bond document stated.
A GBI statement said the investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force to identify those involved in the child pornography trade and the online sexual exploitation of children. The ICAC program was created in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.
Anyone with information about this or any other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the GBI at 404-270-8870. Tips can also be submited by calling 1-800-597-TIPS(8477), online at gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.