ROCKINGHAM — Investigators with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office have charged a Hamlet man with multiple counts of exploiting minors.
According to a press release issued Sept. 6, investigators with the RCSO Special Victims Unit received “cyber tips” on 31-year-old Jason Derek Lars Sadler “related to child sexual abuse and exploitation of minors.”
On Sept. 5, RCSO investigators and the Special Response Team, along with agents from the N.C. State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, executed a search warrant on Spring Street, south of Rockingham.
More than 150 files “containing child sexual abuse materials” were reportedly found during the investigation.
Sadler was arrested and charged with 20 counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor. He is being held in the Richmond County Jail on a combined $500,000 secured bond ($250,000 per 10 counts) and is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 16.
The charges did not appear in online court records as of 2 p.m. Sept. 6, and Sadler appears to have no other pending charges or prior convictions in the state.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
