Former bus driver said he can’t stop thinking about touching kids, Columbus police say

A former elementary school bus driver charged in a multi-jurisdictional operation targeting online sex predators allegedly told detectives he can’t stop thinking about touching children, according to testimony Friday in Columbus Recorder’s Court.

William Pruitt, 48, of Franklin, N.C., pleaded not guilty to sexual exploitation of children. He was booked into the Muscogee County Jail under a $40,000 bond.

Judge Julius Hunter bound the case over to Superior Court.

Columbus Police Sgt. John Bailey said Pruitt communicated with an undercover agent online who was posing as a child. He allegedly went to an undisclosed location in the Chattahoochee Valley with the intent to meet with a child for sex.

According to The Sylva Herald, Pruitt was a custodian and bus driver at Smokey Mountain Elementary School in Whittier, N.C., at the time of the incident. He was hired by Jackson County Schools in December 2015 and also worked as a substitute bus driver for Macon County Schools, according to the Western North Carolina newspaper.

He was terminated from those positions on Nov. 13, the same day he was charged in the sting, according to The Sylva Herald.

Five other men also pleaded not guilty to sexual exploitation of children Friday in Columbus Recorder’s Court. Those individuals were Reginald Crowell, 36; Brian Corcoran, 42; Christopher McGowan, 32; Michael Everett, 22; and Edwin Nieves, 55.

They were also accused of communicating with an undercover agent who was posing as a child. They went to an undisclosed location in the Chattahoochee Valley thinking that he would be meeting with a child for sex, Bailey told the court.

Crowell and Nieves also pleaded not guilty to trafficking a person for labor of servitude. They allegedly agreed to pay to have sex with a child.

Hunter bound all of the cases over to Superior Court. The bonds ranged from $25,000 to $40,000.

The group who appeared in court were among 21 men arrested in a multi-jurisdictional operation centered in the Columbus area.

Launched on Nov. 9, “Operation Hidden Guardian” involved investigators posing as children online. They had more than 600 exchanges with people on various online platforms, including social media and chat rooms. Within more than 400 of those exchanges, the suspect initiated contact with the “child” and directed the conversation toward sex.

Some of the suspects allegedly introduced obscene content, exposed themselves and requested child pornography.

The agencies that were involved in the investigation were the Columbus Police Department, Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office for the Chattahoochee Judicial Circuit, United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Georgia, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, and the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Suspects

• Austin Pierce, 26, of Columbus
• Reginald Crowell, 36, of Pittsview, Ala.
• Jonathan Jenkins, 23, of Columbus
• Ke Song, 24, of Auburn
• Kenneth Jordan, 29, of Columbus
• Edwin Nieves, 55, of Columbus
• Ji Won Kim, 26, of Atlanta
• Christopher McGowan, 32, of Mechanicsburg, Pa.
• Collis Eaton, 48, of Midway, Ala.
• Derrick Smalls, 38, of Phenix City
• Michael Everett, 22, of Columbus
• Jimmy Cobb, 35, of Columbus
• Derrick Weldon, 30, of Columbus
• Harold Bates, 35, of Selma, Ala.
• Jarrold Long, 27, of Columbus
• William Pruitt, 48, Franklin, NC
• Eric Menefee, 50, of Opelika
• Gary Whitefield, 28, of Columbus
• Brian Corcoran, 42, of Columbus
• Robert Moore, 31, of Ladonia, Ala.
• Uthemes Taylor, 30, of Columbus

This story was originally published November 17, 2017 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Former bus driver said he can’t stop thinking about touching kids, Columbus police say."