Sheriff Ray Cross and Trenton Police Chief Christy Smith at a brief press conference at the Dade Courts Facility Thursday.
In a brief, late-called press conference on Thursday, Dade Sheriff Ray Cross announced that his office and the Trenton Police Department were leading a task force of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies investigating individuals who were "trading sexually explicit photos of adults and minors."
"I can say the reason we've been in the schools is to identify additional victims of the scheme," said the sheriff.
Accompanied by Trenton Police Chief Christy Smith, Sheriff Cross urged any "young women or men" who may have been coerced into participating in such trading to contact his office or the Trenton Police Department. The idea, he said, is not to embarrass or attack such individuals--"I want to stress that word 'victims'"--but to learn more about the "extent of criminal activities by persons of interest in this case."
Cross made it clear that was all he had to say about it. "Saying too much too soon will hurt this investigation and the prosecution of this case," he said.
Dr. Jan Harris, Dade's superintendent of schools, confirmed that state and federal law enforcement agencies had been in Dade schools for "a number of days" and said she expected they would have results to announce quite soon.
She did not identify which agencies or in fact wish to comment on the situation at all, saying she'd been asked not to by law enforcement. But she did say she didn't believe the schools had any overriding or persistent problem with the kind of photo-trading the sheriff was hinting at.
As to why the sheriff would hold a press conference at all when he was willing to part with so little information, Dr. Harris said: "The whole purpose of that is to get people to come forward."
If you have information you'd like to come forward with, you may call the Dade Sheriff's Office at (706) 657-3233 or the Trenton Police Department at (706) 657-4167.
