TROUP COUNTY, Ga. — A LaGrange man has pleaded guilty to multiple crimes involving the sexual exploitation of both women and children. According to District Attorney John Herbert Cranford Jr., he will now be serving decades in prison as a result. The man, however, is still under indictment in a separate case.
Avery Hogan Pendergraph pleaded guilty on Thursday, March 10, to:
- Two counts of racketeering
- Five counts of sexual exploitation of children
- Nine counts of invasion of privacy
- One count of criminal trespass
- One count of possession of eavesdropping devices.
A Superior Court judge sentenced Pendergraph to 50 years in prison and 20 years in probation with special conditions for sex offenders.
An 18-month investigation was carried out by LaGrange Police, Athens-Clarke County Police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, revealing that the LaGrange man's crimes began as early as 2012.
Pendergraph videotaped and photographed women he was dating without their knowledge--uploading the content to pornography sites.
Pendergraph created hundreds of email and website accounts in the names of his victims. He then uploaded "deep fake" photos from his victims' social media accounts and nude photos of other women he obtained from the internet, with their names and jobs.
He also hid video cameras in private and public bathrooms, where he videotaped men, women and children using the bathroom and then uploaded the content to off-shore file-sharing sites.
Pendergraph acquired and distributed child pornography videos and photos featuring the molestation of infants, toddlers and minor children, the DA said.
Pendergraph's original indictment reads:
“On and between March 18, 2016, and June 4, 2020, the accused engaged in an elaborate, systematic, and invasive scheme to acquire, maintain, and distribute thousands of obscene materials depicting children, men, and women in violation of State and federal laws. The accused’s scheme was intended to satisfy the prurient interests of himself and others. The accused’s scheme was intended to sadistically exploit, harm, embarrass, and exert the accused’s control and dominion over his victims. The accused’s scheme was intended to exalt himself through voyeuristic control over and sexualized exploitation of women and children.”
Pendergraph is separately under indictment in Athens-Clarke County for rape and aggravated sodomy.
