September CyperTip Leads to Tuscaloosa Man’s Arrest for Child Pornography
EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this story incorrectly and accidentally featured the mugshot of a different recently arrested suspect unaffiliated with this case or any related charges instead of the image of Joe Crutchfield, Jr. We deeply regret the error and have changed the photo to feature the correct suspect.
A 23-year-old in Tuscaloosa was arrested this week following a September CyberTip that he may have been storing child pornography in a digital cloud storage account.
According to court documents filed on Friday, Google submitted a tip to the National Center for Missing and Endangered Children about 18 potentially illegal images that had been uploaded to a Google Photos account.
Investigators verified that 10 of the images illegally depicted child sex abuse material - Alabama's classification for explicit images or videos of those under the age of 18.
The deposition says the tip then led to a subpoena to an internet service provider to track down the physical location of the internet account, which led them to the Tuscaloosa home of 23-year-old Joe Crutchfield, Jr.
On Wednesday, agents with the West Alabama Human Traffic Task Force served a search warrant and interviewed Crutchfield, who allegedly admitted to knowingly possessing the illegal material.
Crutchfield was arrested and charged with 10 counts of possession of child sex abuse material and placed in the Tuscaloosa County Jail, where he is being held without bond.
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