Councilman Who Posed As Teen Online Pleads Guilty To Porn Charges

ROSWELL, GA — Former Roswell City Council member Kent Igleheart has entered guilty pleas to four counts of producing child pornography, one count of receiving child pornograhy and one count of possessing the illegal material, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.

Igleheart entered a guilty plea last week and his sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 26 before U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg. Igleheart was arrested in October 2016 after DeKalb County police learned the 54-year-old was planning to meet a teenager for sex at a motel.

“By persuading his minor victims to create and share graphic images of themselves online, Igleheart has caused these children to suffer ongoing and irreparable harm,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “No one expects to see a community leader behave in this kind of heinous manner, and this betrayal of public trust underscores the need for parents to remain aware of how their children are using the internet and social media.”

According to prosecutors, the 17-year-old reached out in October 2016 to DeKalb County's Internet Crimes Against Children Unit to report she had been communicating online since she was 13 years old with someone who "portrayed himself to be 17 years old," federal prosecutors said. The teen said she exchanged sexually graphic photos and had explicit conversations with this person. She later discovered the person she was communicating with was Igleheart, not the teenage boy depicted in the profile photo the former councilman used, the feds charge.

Igleheart, who admitted to exchanging sexually explicit photographs with the victim since she was 13, booked a hotel in DeKalb County on Oct. 20, 2016, with plans to engage in a sexual encounter with the teen. He was arrested when he arrived at Northlake Mall, a pre-arranged spot where he agreed to meet the teen. He resigned from his post on the Roswell City Council following his arrest and was later indicted on the charges.

DeKalb investigators and FBI agents searched Igleheart's phones and computers and found some of the photos the victim sent to the defendant "at his request." Those searches also uncovered that Igleheart referred to himself online as Kent Allen, where he posed as a boy between 14 and 17 years old and engaged in "sexually graphic communications with numerous teenage girls, some of whom were as young as 13 years old."

"During these conversations, Igleheart persuaded and enticed the girls to take photographs of their genitalia and videos of themselves engaging in sexual conduct and transmit the images to him via the internet," the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

The FBI and DeKalb County Police Department investigated the case, and U.S. Assistant Attorneys Yonette Sam Buchanan and Richard S. Moultrie, Jr., prosecuted the case.

Image via DeKalb County Jail