A 38-year-old man working for a vendor at the Georgia National Fair in Perry has been arrested and charged after police say a court-authorized search of his cell phone turned up child pornography. Austin Mullis was taken into custody following an investigation that began after he was confronted by a YouTube influencer at the fairgrounds, though police stress the criminal charges stem from separate conduct uncovered during the phone search.
Confrontation at the Fairgrounds Triggers Police Probe
Mullis was confronted at the Georgia National Fair on Tuesday by a YouTube influencer known for setting up fake accounts and posing online as a child to catch suspected predators, according to Perry Police. The 37th annual fair is running October 8 through October 18 at the Georgia National Fairgrounds & Agricenter, a state-sponsored event administered by the Georgia Agricultural Exposition Authority, as reported by Wikipedia. That confrontation led the Perry Police Department to open an investigation into potential sexually explicit communication with someone believed to be a minor, according to 13WMAZ.
Police then obtained court authorization to search Mullis's cell phone. Perry Police Major Heath Dykes said that search uncovered child pornography, and the station's report notes the criminal charges stemmed from conduct separate from Tuesday's public confrontation. Mullis was booked into the Houston County Jail, which handles bookings for county and municipal law enforcement agencies in the Perry area, and jail records list his charge as computer pornography/child exploitation.
Police Push Back on Vigilante Tactics
Dykes made clear he disapproved of the influencer's tactics, particularly the decision to confront a suspect in public without prior coordination with law enforcement. “That's just not safe,” Dykes said. Five people connected to the confrontation, including four members of the vigilante group and Mullis himself, received trespass warnings barring them from the fairgrounds, according to Dykes.
The tension between private online predator-hunter groups and professional investigators is not new. Law enforcement agencies and prosecutors nationwide have repeatedly warned that uncoordinated civilian stings can compromise active investigations, jeopardize the admissibility of evidence, and create safety hazards during public confrontations, per a Washington Post report cited in prior Hoodline coverage. Courts and prosecutors in several states have even dismissed charges against targets of these groups because statutes often require undercover decoys to be actual law enforcement officers or involve real minors, a gap Hoodline previously reported in a Pennsylvania case. In some instances, vigilante operators have themselves faced felony charges such as obstruction of justice or unlawful restraint when confrontations escalated or interfered with police work.
No Public Threat, Police Say, as Investigation Continues
Perry Police reported there is no known threat to the public connected to the case and said they are withholding additional information as the investigation moves forward. Digital forensic work in cases like this typically runs through specialized state infrastructure; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit houses the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which coordinates forensic support across more than 220 state and local agencies.
Under Georgia Code § 16-12-100, possessing child pornography is a felony punishable by 5 to 20 years in prison, fines up to $100,000, and mandatory registration as a sex offender upon conviction. A related statute, Georgia Code § 16-12-100.2, makes using an electronic device to entice or solicit a child for illegal sexual acts a felony punishable by 1 to 20 years in prison and fines up to $25,000, according to the Awad Legal Team. Perry Police are asking anyone with information to contact Lt. Kimberly Morton in the department's Criminal Investigations Division.
