South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Anthony Vincent Bedenbaugh (age 34), of Lexington, and Jason Cooke Boney (age 38), of Lexington, on four total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office, also a member of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.

Investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to both Bedenbaugh and Boney. Investigators state Bedenbaugh possessed child sexual abuse material and Boney distributed files of child sexual abuse material.

Bedenbaugh was arrested on December 21, 2023. He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment.

Boney was arrested on December 28, 2023. He is charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

Boney was out on bond from a prior arrest on related charges in 2022.

Both of these cases will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. “Pornography” can imply the child was a consenting participant. Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.