A 66-year-old Spartanburg man is being held on a $750,000 secured bond after McDowell County deputies charged him with two felony child sex offenses allegedly involving a child in May. Michael Hiawatha Webb was arrested September 3 and booked into the McDowell County Detention Center on charges of felony statutory sex offense with a child and felony indecent liberties with a child. The charges are allegations, and Webb remains presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
According to the FOX Carolina report, the McDowell County Sheriff's Office said a family member of the alleged victim reported possible inappropriate contact between Webb and a child on May 18, 2026. Detectives later determined through their investigation that Webb was responsible for the alleged crimes, the sheriff's office said.
Court records reviewed by WCAB News identify the case as State of North Carolina v. Michael Hiawatha Webb, filed August 31 in McDowell District Court under case number 26CR396299-580. The charging documents allege that the offenses occurred May 15, 2026, and involved a 10-year-old child.
Bond Conditions Bar Travel and Contact With the Family
Beyond the $750,000 secured bond, the magistrate's release order includes strict conditions should Webb post bond, according to the same outlet's review of the case. He would be required to remain in North Carolina, surrender or revoke his passport, and avoid any direct or indirect contact with the victim or the victim's family. Webb remains held at the McDowell County Law Enforcement Center pending judicial review of those release conditions, the report notes.
The two charges carry sharply different weight under North Carolina law. Statutory sexual offense with a child by an adult is classified as a Class B1 felony, while indecent liberties with a child is a Class F felony, as WCAB News lays out in its coverage of the statutory framework. Class B1 felonies sit near the top of North Carolina's non-capital severity scale, just below first-degree murder.
What a Class B1 Conviction Would Mean
The indecent-liberties statute applies when a defendant is at least 16 and at least five years older than a victim who is under 16, according to the law firm DeMent Askew Johnson & Marshall. A conviction on the Class B1 charge would carry a mandatory active prison sentence, while the case's ultimate penalties would depend on the charges proved and the sentence imposed. A separate legal analysis from Patrick Roberts Law describes the potential sentencing consequences under North Carolina's framework.
The case remains in an early procedural stage in McDowell District Court. The available records do not indicate whether prosecutors will seek a grand jury indictment moving the case to Superior Court.
A conviction on the lesser indecent liberties charge alone would still carry serious long-term consequences, including mandatory lifetime registration on the state Sex Offender Registry and strict post-release living restrictions near schools or childcare centers, according to Patrick Roberts Law's separate analysis of that statute.
Part of a Wider Pattern in the Region
Webb's case follows other severe child crime prosecutions McDowell County authorities have pursued this year, including a Marion father charged with murder in an infant's death and a Nebo man held without bond on ten child sex felony counts in neighboring Burke County. Investigations of this kind in McDowell and surrounding Western North Carolina counties often draw on regional resources such as the Burke County Children's Advocacy Center in Morganton, operated by Southmountain Children and Family Services, which conducts forensic interviews and victim advocacy when law enforcement makes a referral.
How Children's Advocacy Centers Assist
The available National Children's Alliance model description does not establish how many children North Carolina's accredited Children's Advocacy Centers served or show that any particular center handled Webb's case. It says the centers use a child-focused setting in which a trained forensic interviewer speaks with the child, while a multidisciplinary team coordinates law enforcement, child-protective, medical, victim-advocacy and prosecution services, according to the National Children's Alliance.
No additional charges or jurisdictions have been announced in Webb's case as of Tuesday. It remains unclear when he will next appear in court or whether he intends to seek release under the bond conditions set by the magistrate.
