Oconee County Sheriff’s Office Arrests Walhalla Man on Multiple Counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office arrested a Walhalla man Tuesday on 15 counts of Sexual Exploitation of a Minor – 3rd Degree.

36 year old Barry Dean Neal was booked into the Oconee County Detention Center around 2:44pm yesterday.  At this time, Neal remains in custody at the Oconee County Detention Center on a combined $150,000 surety bond.  Neal will also be required to wear an electronic monitoring device as a condition of bond should he be released.

Investigators from the Criminal Investigations Division executed a search warrant at Neal’s property and residence yesterday in regards to an investigation unrelated to his arrest.  Investigators seized various electronic equipment and SIM cards pursuant to the search warrant.

After seizing those items, investigators obtained a separate search warrant to access data on those items.  The search and download of those items produced a quantity of child pornography.  

Based upon the evidence gathered as a result of the investigation, the Child/Elder Abuse investigation obtained the arrest warrants against Neal.  

The Oconee County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation and in order to preserve the integrity of the investigation and that of the victims, the Sheriff’s Office will not be releasing any information that could potentially identify the victims in this case, which includes any relationship between the victims and the arrestee, the ages of the victims, the gender of the victims and the address from where the items were seized.