Posted: Sep 16, 2025 / 05:32 PM EDT
Updated: Sep 16, 2025 / 11:37 PM EDT
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) — A now-suspended Charleston County magistrate judge is facing federal charges in connection with a child sexual exploitation investigation, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
James B. Gosnell, Jr., 68, was taken into custody Sept. 16 by federal authorities in Charleston County and charged with possession of child sexual abuse material.
Prosecutors stated that the investigation began after agents with the Department of Homeland Security Investigations received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that multiple financial transactions had been made in November 2024 to a known distributor of child sexual abuse material in the United Kingdom.
Investigators traced the payments to an online money transfer account linked to Gosnell’s phone number, address, and email account.
Authorities seized a flash drive from Gosnell’s home while executing a search warrant that contained “numerous videos and images depicting child sexual abuse, including videos and images of prepubescent minors, infants, and toddlers engaged in sexually explicit conduct,” prosecutors said.
He is scheduled to appear in court for a bond hearing at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the U.S. District Courthouse in downtown Charleston, according to his lawyer, Lionel Lofton.
Gosnell was suspended from the bench by South Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice John Kittredge shortly following his arrest.
Kittredge cited “credible information” the court had received indicating that his continued service “poses a substantial threat of serious harm to the public and the administration of justice.”
As a magistrate, Gosnell was tasked with setting bail, conducting preliminary hearings, issuing arrest and search warrants, and generally presiding over misdemeanor criminal cases.
Gosnell presided over the initial bond hearing for Dylann Roof, the South Carolina man who shot and killed nine Black parishioners at a historic downtown Charleston church in 2015.
Shortly thereafter, he was replaced as the chief magistrate judge for expressing what was construed as sympathy for Roof’s family during the hearing.
That was not the only time Gosnell’s conduct raised eyebrows.
An NBC News report at the time stated that the state Supreme Court had previously reprimanded Gosnell for using a racial slur from the bench in 2003.
In a disciplinary order regarding his choice of language, Gosnell claimed that he was quoting a statement made to him by a veteran black sheriff’s deputy when he repeated it to the defendant, the outlet reported.
He was also reprimanded for a 2003 incident in which Gosnell was accused of special treatment toward a Charleston municipal court judge who had been arrested for driving under the influence.
Why is it always child porn? The fukk 
Thats what they do
