Deputy Johnathan Allen (Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office/Facebook).
A sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee was arrested last week on charges related to child pornography and an alleged text conversation he had with a 13-year-old in South Carolina, prompting his boss to publicly rip him as “disgusting” as he placed the cop on administrative leave.
“I am furious over the alleged actions … and the disgusting nature of these charges,” Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett said in a Dec. 5 statement. “The HCSO holds our personnel to the highest of standards and this type of alleged behavior will not be tolerated.”
Johnathan Allen, a 25-year-old corrections deputy who graduated from a “basic law enforcement academy” on Nov. 1 and has worked for HCSO since 2021, faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of criminal solicitation of a minor for allegedly texting and conversing with a 13-year-old in South Carolina.
The victim’s father found out about the texting and contacted police in York County, South Carolina, who then traced the texts back to Allen, according to the NBC affiliate WRCB, out of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The deputy allegedly met the youth on Reddit using the name “Josh” and began private messaging with the teen, WRCB reports.
The messages started were “sexual in nature,” according to police, with Allen allegedly requesting photos and videos of the minor. The only hint that he ever gave about his age, per police, was a statement over the phone in which Allen claimed to have “already gone through puberty” after being questioned about the mature sound of his voice.
It’s unclear whether Allen and the minor planned to meet up in person.
The York County Sheriff’s Office filed for an arrest warrant from the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office last Wednesday and then executed a digital search of Allen’s electronic devices on Thursday, which reportedly led to his arrest.
“I have immediately placed him on Administrative Leave pending a pre-disciplinary hearing that will be held in the immediate future per Civil Service rules,” Garrett said in his statement. “In addition to the ongoing criminal investigation, an HCSO Internal Affairs investigation has also been initiated.”
According to police, Allen will remain on leave — with pay — for 14 days as he waits for his pre-disciplinary hearing. Once those two weeks are up, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that he’ll be placed on unpaid leave and will be subject to a disciplinary hearing.
According to the local paper, Allen is the third Hamilton County deputy to be arrested in the past three months. Another jail deputy was fired in September after being charged with a DUI, and then another weeks after that for allegedly threatening a student at Cleveland State Community College.
Attempts by Law&Crime to reach HCSO officials for comment on Sunday were unsuccessful.
