Harrisonburg realtor sentenced to 126 in prison in child porn case
HARRISONBURG — A Harrisonburg realtor was sentenced to 126 years in prison last week after being convicted on 75 counts following a child pornography investigation.
Rodney Williams, 53, was convicted by a jury in Rockingham County Circuit Court in April on 50 counts of knowingly possessing child sexual abuse material and 25 counts of distribution of child sexual abuse material.
The investigation was conducted by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Harrisonburg and the Harrisonburg Police Department, a press release said.
“Rodney Williams’ actions were nothing short of reprehensible,” said HSI Washington, D.C. Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon. “Williams shamefully targeted the most vulnerable members of our community for his own perverse desires. Thankfully, the severity of his sentence reflected the depravity of his crimes."
The investigation began with a cyber tip-line report through the HSI Cyber Crimes Center’s (C3) Child Exploitation Investigations Unit that originated from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the release said. The tip led authorities to an IP address that appeared to have uploaded child sexual abuse material through a popular internet messaging app associated with Williams’ address in Harrisonburg.
HSI Harrisonburg invited the Harrisonburg Police Department to conduct a joint investigation into Williams’ online activities.
In December 2020, authorities executed a federal search warrant and seized a cellphone belonging to Williams. After inspecting the cell phone, an HSI computer forensics analyst discovered it contained child sexual abuse material.
Special agents from HSI Harrisonburg and Harrisonburg Police Department officers arrested Williams in August 2021 on charges related to the child sexual abuse material discovered on his cellphone.
Willams was sentenced Aug. 14.
Brad Zinn is the cops, courts and breaking news reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip? Or something that needs investigating? You can email reporter Brad Zinn (he/him) at bzinn@newsleader.com. You can also follow him on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Harrisonburg realtor sentenced to 126 years in prison in child porn case
