A former Tennessee corrections deputy will spend 25 years in federal prison after a York County father's discovery of disturbing messages on his daughter's phone launched a multi-state child exploitation investigation.
U.S. District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Johnathan Nathaniel Allen, 27, of Chattanooga on Wednesday, Sept. 16, for producing child sexual abuse material, according to Local 3 News. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina announced the sentence.
Allen had pleaded guilty.
The case began in September 2024 when a York County father found concerning text messages on his 13-year-old daughter's cell phone and called police. The York County Sheriff's Office and the FBI traced the accounts to Allen, who had been posing as a 14-year-old boy named "Josh" on Instagram, Reddit, TextMe and the gaming platform Roblox.
Investigators determined Allen exploited eight children across five states: South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas, Missouri and New York. Some were in sixth grade.
Prosecutors said Allen manipulated victims by telling them he loved them and pressuring them for sexually explicit content. One child rejected his requests eight times before Allen persisted. He also threatened to share intimate images of one minor if she stopped communicating with him, the Times Free Press reported.
When agents searched Allen's home, they found his phone containing the fake "Josh" accounts and child sexual abuse material. Clothing in his bedroom matched items worn by "Josh" in explicit images sent to a minor. One photo "Josh" used on Reddit was actually a picture of Allen when he was younger, according to prosecutors.
Allen had worked as a corrections deputy with the Hamilton County, Tennessee, Sheriff's Office since 2021. He graduated from a law enforcement academy on Friday, Nov. 1, 2024, weeks before his arrest.
York County Sheriff's Office investigators traveled to Chattanooga on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, and obtained an arrest warrant. Allen was arrested the next day and taken to jail in South Carolina.
Hamilton County Sheriff Austin Garrett fired Allen on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024. At the pre-disciplinary hearing, Garrett told Allen: "You preyed upon a child, one of the most egregious things a person can do. You embarrassed this agency, you've lost the trust and embarrassed the people of this county." Tennessee's law enforcement oversight agency voted unanimously to strip Allen's peace officer certification in March 2025.
Beyond the 25-year prison term, Lydon ordered 15 years of court-supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Allen must also register as a sex offender and pay $3,000 in restitution to a victim and $4,000 to a victim services fund.
His defense attorney had asked for roughly 17.5 years.
York County Sheriff Tony Breeden credited Director Hamilton and Lt. Alex Clark for their work on the case. The FBI Columbia field office, Homeland Security Investigations and the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office assisted in the investigation.
