Columbia TV journalist arrested on child pornography charges

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – A local journalist for a Columbia television station was arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography.

According to the South Carolina Attorney General's Office, 28-year-old Matt Vereen was arrested Wednesday and taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.

He is a journalist at the television station WACH-TV.

Vereen was charged with three counts related to the sexual exploitation of a minor: two counts of the second degree and one additional count of the third degree.

A press release said Vereen was arrested by investigators from the South Carolina Attorney General's Office's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The investigation was conducted by investigators from the Columbia Police Department and Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the state's ICAC Task Force.

The arrest warrants state that during a search of his Apple laptop on Wednesday, material depicting child sexual abuse involving an underage girl was found.

Another search warrant states that Vereen solicited the purchase of a 1 minute and 32 second video of an underage girl. A third search warrant states that he offered another video of 1 minute and 26 seconds in length.

According to the warrants, Vereen was identified using Gmail records, Apple records, ISP records and another record that was redacted.

Vereen's LinkedIn page states that he worked as a sports anchor and reporter for WACH-TV for nearly three years. Before that, he worked as a sports reporter and anchor at KOLR, a news station in Springfield, Missouri.

WACH-TV announced on Friday that Vereen had been suspended.

The Alvin S. Glenn Bond Court confirmed that Vereen was given a $40,000 cash bond. Conditions of his bond include not having access to personal internet, not using social media outside of work, and not having contact with minors without adult supervision.

However, WACH-TV issued the following statement:

Sports reporter Matt Vereen was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, investigators with the South Carolina Attorney General's Office's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said.

WACH FOX News recognizes the seriousness of these allegations and has suspended Vereen pending the outcome of the investigation.

Since this is a personnel matter, the broadcaster does not wish to make any further comment at this time.

All rights reserved.