Former Harnett Deputy Wants To Withdraw Plea In Child Porn Case

By Robert Jordan
Daily Record of Dunn

HARNETT COUNTY – A former Harnett County deputy is asking the federal courts to withdraw his guilty plea of victimizing young girls through pornography or dismiss the charges altogether after a presentencing report showed he could face life in prison for the charge.

Jonathan Andrew Edwards, now 36, of West Blackman Road, Dunn, was fired from the Harnett County Sheriff’s Office on Nov. 30, 2023. Officers of the U.S. Marshals Service arrested him at his home on March 1, 2024, serving him with a federal indictment issued by a grand jury on Feb. 29, 2024.

He was indicted on six counts of producing child porn and one count each of receiving sexually explicit visual depictions of a minor with sexually explicit visual depictions of different minor children, as well as one count each of receiving and producing sexually explicit visual depictions of a minor under 12 years of age. The six videos, used as evidence for the charges, contained sexually explicit visual depictions of different minor children. Prosecutors opted to use only six of several videos of child porn Edwards was accused of creating due to the metadata quality of the videos.

Court records show that Edwards pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him on Jan. 16, but his defense counsel discussed the possibility of a plea or bench trial during Edwards’ arraignment. His trial was set for March 5. 

U.S. Assistant District Attorney Charity Wilson told the court they offered him a plea deal Jan. 29 agreeing to drop the other charges if he pleaded guilty to one count of producing child pornography. Court records show Edwards accepted and signed the plea on Jan. 31.

Edwards formally pleaded guilty to the charge in court on Feb. 13.

The U.S. Probation Office filed a draft presentencing investigation report with the court on April 1, showing Edwards could face up to a maximum life in prison sentence for the charge. On April 18, Edwards filed an instant motion to dismiss the charges against him or withdraw his guilty plea. At that filing, the government took no position because Edwards’ defense counsel refused to explain the basis for the motion other than “general accusations of discovery misconduct,” according to court records.

Prosecutors filed a response opposing Edwards’ motion on May 23. “He has not met his burden to withdraw his guilty plea,” Wilson wrote. “Two problems have consistently emerged. First, the defendant’s often wild accusations of misconduct have proven overblown or simply not true. Not once has this Court found any merit to any of those accusations.” 

Those accusations included claims of misconduct against a North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations agent, who Edwards said lied in an affidavit and misled a state judge. Edwards also claimed one victim witness obstructed justice by retaining counsel and intervening to defend herself. In two additional claims, Edwards accused the government of committing discovery misconduct and said that a superior court judge failed to discharge his duties.

“And second, the defendant has relied on those accusations to get something he was not otherwise entitled to — suppression of the Google account, reopened deadlines and now case dismissal,” Wilson wrote in her motion for the court to deny his move to backtrack his guilty plea.

The suppression Wilson mentioned was a strategy by Edwards to hide the content of the pornographic videos used by the government as evidence in the case. The court denied a motion to suppress this evidence.

“… It is beyond time to move to sentencing and focus on the one person who really did wrong here: the defendant,” Wilson said.

This case, which has gone on for 19 months, began when a female inmate in the Harnett County Detention Center filed a complaint of sexual harassment against Edwards after he allegedly showed her pictures of his genitals on his personal cellphone.

Sheriff Wayne Coats released a statement to the media on Dec. 5, 2023 indicating an internal investigation was initiated and Edwards was placed on administrative leave that October.

The motion for the court to deny Edwards’ lastest move details all of the allegations against Edwards which include the former deputy hiding his cellphone near a dumpster in the HCSO parking lot when he was called in to be placed on administrative leave.

Investigators saw the act on a surveillance camera and retrieved his cellphone. A probe of the phone led investigators to charge Edwards with numerous crimes referencing videos of children performing sexual acts and accusations of Edwards facilitating minors to engage in those acts. Because some of the alleged victims were from locations outside of North Carolina, Harnett County District Attorney Suzanne Matthews elected to voluntarily dismiss all state charges in lieu of the federal court system taking over the investigation and prosecution of the case.

The six videos in the federal case were described in graphic detail in the U.S. attorney’s motion to dismiss Edwards’ new claim of innocence. These details included transcripts of alleged online chats between Edwards and his victims, ranging in age from an estimated 9 years old to a reported 17.

Court documents explain that agents with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security were able to identify at least one of the victims, who resides in Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police worked with investigators to contact that victim identified as “Jane Doe” and her mother. That young girl admitted to investigators she was the one depicted in the video. Another known victim was identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as depicted in Edwards’ possessed child pornography collection. A minor child living in South Dakota was another victim identified in the collection.

The prosecution and defense now await the decision of the federal judge to determine the next steps to be taken in the case.