Tennessee deputy accused of enticing a young SC girl into sex acts on internet

A federal grand jury in Columbia has returned a three-count indictment charging a former Tennessee law enforcement officer with sex crimes in connection involving a South Carolina child.

Johnathan Nathaniel Allen, 26, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, is charged with enticement of a minor and production of child sexual abuse material, according to an indictment.

At the time of the alleged offense, Allen was a sheriff’s deputy with Hamilton County, Tennessee, federal authorities said.

A hearing in the case has been set for Sept. 4 before federal Magistrate Judge Paige J. Gossett. Allen is in custody in the York County, S.C., jail on state charges.

The seven-page South Carolina federal indictment in the case alleges that in September 2024, Allen used accounts on Reddit and TextMe to contact a 13-year-old girl in South Carolina. He used the aliases of “Josh Taylor,” “Josh Smith” and “Top_Cry2744,” the indictment said.

Allen, who had been with the county sheriff’s office since 2021, posed on the platform as a 14-year-old boy named Josh, a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Columbia said.

Allen used the social media platforms to target minors for sexual exploitation, one of whom was the minor victim in South Carolina, the press release said.

Allen also obtained a virtual phone number through the TextMe platform to make the scheme work, the press release said.

“Allen targeted and communicated with the victim through both platforms, he told her that he loved her, and he caused the production of sexually explicit content depicting the minor. Allen told the victim that he was proud of her, and that she learned something new she could do. He also requested her to perform additional sex acts, and he told her to delete the messages so no one else would see them,”the press release said.

Allen faces a mandatory 15 years in prison and a maximum penalty of life in prison.

The case was investigated by the FBI Columbia Field Office and the York County Sheriff’s Office with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott B. Daniels is prosecuting the case.

(In its press release, the U.S. Attorney’s office misstated the charges against Johnathan Allen. He was not indicted for obstruction of justice. The story has been corrected.)

This story was originally published August 22, 2025 at 11:17 AM.