The Georgia Military Police Department received information that one of its teachers “had inappropriate sexual contact with a minor” and quickly requested the assistance of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
In the process, the school fired the teacher – Michael Talton-Lee Barnes, 24, listed with a Putnam County address.
Barnes was a physical education teacher and coach at the prep school.
Within 48 hours, the GBI executed a search warrant at Barnes’ home, and he was detained.
Talton was booked at the Baldwin County jail and charged with four counts of child molestation and one count of enticing a child for indecent purposes.
“The alleged conduct occurred off campus and did not involve school-sponsored activities. Upon first learning of the allegation, the institution conducted an initial review and immediately terminated the employee and removed them from campus,” according to a statement issued by GMC.
The investigation “revealed Barnes was having sexual contact with a minor at a local church in Milledgeville,” according to a GBI press release.
The GBI issued the press release last Friday.
Later that same day, the GBI issued a second press release, this time announcing that a 21-year-old Milledgeville man had been arrested on one count of sexual exploitation of a children. Zakarie Ralston, 21, was booked the county jail. The GBI first began investigating Ralston’s online activity back in January “after receiving a Cyber Tipline Report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the possession of child sexual abuse material.”
Added the press release: “This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the trade of child sexual abuse material. The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.”