Two weeks after Beaufort County, South Carolina police issued a warrant for a firefighter wanted in multiple child sex crimes, Brandon Thomsen was arrested in Georgia.
Beaufort Police officials said Thomsen, 46, was behind bars in the Lowndes county jail in Valdosta, Georgia as of Thursday afternoon.
Thomsen hired high-powered criminal defense attorney Jack Swerling of Columbia, South Carolina. Swerling is one of the most well-known criminal defense attorneys in South Carolina — a couple of his cases were the subjects of movies.
Swerling “has indicated that Thomsen will not fight extradition,” Beaufort Police said in a news release.
The Island Packet reported last week that he was in a medical facility in Brunswick, Georgia, but police refused to release further details.
Once he returns to Beaufort, South Carolina, Thomsen will be charged with criminal solicitation of a minor and dissemination of obscene materiel to a person under 18.
Police have not indicated if they will file additional charges against Thomsen.
According to the police report obtained by FITSNews, a Beaufort County mother called police on Nov. 28 after she discovered disturbing Snapchat messages Thomsen sent to her 13-year-old daughter.
Last week, disturbing details emerged in the case uncovered exclusively by FITNews.
10 years before this recent alleged incident with a 13-year-old, Thomsen was accused in another sexual assault incident involving another 13-year-old girl who is now 23, according to court documents.
Thomsen was never charged in the incident, but was named in the lawsuit filed by the 13-year-old’s daughter and the police report.
However, Thomsen is most known for his alleged role in the controversial death of a Beaufort County black man who died in police custody.
Earlier this year, Thomsen was the only individual named in a wrongful death lawsuit that accused Thomsen of using a chokehold on 24-year-old Trey Pringle after he was tased multiple times on Feb. 17, 2018.
Earlier this year, Thomsen was the only individual named in a wrongful death lawsuit that accused Thomsen of using a chokehold on 24-year-old Trey Pringle after he was tased multiple times on Feb. 17, 2018.
Thomsen was assisting Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office deputies as a Burton firefighter responding to Pringle’s home in Seabrook, South Carolina after his family called 911 for medical assistance. Pringle was “behaving erratically.”
After a deputy tased Pringle, Thomsen put him in a chokehold “without authorization or training,” the lawsuit said. At this time, Pringle was lying on the floor subdued and was surrounded by four first responders, according to the lawsuit.
After deputies tased him several more times, Thomsen kept Pringle in a headlock/ chokehold, the lawsuit said.
Pringle stopped breathing and he later died in a hospital. No charges were filed in his death.
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