Oconeean charged with disseminating obscene material

A 27-year old Oconee County man was jailed today in Walhalla on charges of criminal solicitation of a minor and disseminating obscene material to a person he thought was a teenage girl, according to an announcement this afternoon by the sheriff’s office. The charges were placed against Aliester Shawn Ford of W. Halfway Branch.  “In the course of the exchange,” the announcement alleges, “Ford solicited the person, whom he was communicating with and whom he believed to be a minor female, to provide sexually explicit photographs of herself.”  According to the announcement, an investigator was contacted in reference to an individual who sent an image to an account that he believed was operated by a minor.  Ford was released from custody on the posting of a bond.