Rhea County man charged with producing, sharing child pornography

Bradley Rose
Bradley Rose
photo Bradley Rose

A 44-year-old Rhea County, Tenn., man is facing allegations of producing child pornography and sharing it with a sex offender in California.

Bradley Rose is charged with one count of especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, which is a class B felony, Rhea County Sheriff's Office investigator Rocky Potter said Tuesday. Potter said Dayton Police Department investigator Steve Rievley is a member of a government-funded network that tracks exploited children and related cases and was contacted by a detective in California.

The detective, who also belongs to the network, told Rievley that a sex offender registered in California had violated his probation because he was found in possession of new child pornography, Potter said. Among the evidence found were phone numbers with Tennessee's 423 area code.

"Steve got with me and we started looking into the leads as far as the phone number and checking social media - Facebook, Twitter and all - to try to match up some of these references and some names," Potter said.

Potter and Rievley enlisted help from Rhea County Director of Schools Jerry Levengood, who was able to narrow the victim search to a few students under the age of 12, he said.

Investigators showed a phone number to the mother of one of the possible victims and she recognized it "as belonging to Bradley Rose, who had befriended some children" in a local community, Potter said.

Rose was taken into custody at a local business where he gave authorities his cellphone, remarking to officers that he "knew what we needed," Potter said.

Rose is being held on a $100,000 bond, according to jail officials. He faces a Nov. 7 date in Rhea County General Sessions Court.

Potter said investigators are now interviewing other children "since they've had a lot of contact with Mr. Rose since the summer." Potter said that if any information from those interviews involves abuse, it could be presented to the December grand jury for additional charges.

Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569. Follow on Twitter @BenBenton or on Facebook at benbenton1.

Upcoming Events