COLUMBIA, SC – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Ricky Craig Weinberg, 62, of Rock Hill, S.C., and Robert Norman Brookhart, 51, of Fort Mill, S.C., on 21 total charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the York County Sheriff’s Office made the arrests in these unrelated cases. Investigators with the Attorney General’s Office and Rock Hill Police Department, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with these investigations.
Investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Weinberg and Brookhart. Investigators state both Weinberg and Brookhart possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material. Weinberg also distributed child sexual abuse material.
Weinberg was arrested on January 16, 2021. He is charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment; and 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.
Brookhart was arrested on January 19, 2021. He is charged with 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.
Both of these cases will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.
Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.