A sitting GOP South Carolina city councilman and mayor pro tem has been charged with paying dozens of minors for sexually explicit material, federal prosecutors say, in a case that carries a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison if he’s convicted. What started as a single tip from a social media investigation grew into a case spanning years, dozens of accounts, and at least one alleged victim who was 12 years old.
Kevin Phillip Hedgpeth, 48, the Mayor Pro Tem and a City Council member for Hanahan, South Carolina, has been charged with possession and production of child sexual abuse material, according to a criminal complaint and arrest warrant unsealed April 14, 2026, by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.
How the Investigation Started
According to the charging document, authorized by U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Gordon Baker, the case began when Homeland Security Investigations identified Hedgpeth as a member of a social media forum facilitating the sale of child sexual abuse material.
That single thread, once investigators pulled it, led to a much larger case. Further investigation revealed that Hedgpeth had paid numerous minors who were separately identified as likely victims of child sex abuse in CyberTips submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This wasn’t a case built on one account or one tip. It connected to a broader, existing pattern of reported exploitation that investigators were already tracking.
From December 2021 to the present, prosecutors allege Hedgpeth’s Cash App and PayPal accounts made payments to 47 separate accounts, either associated with minors or suspected of selling this kind of content. Some of the accounts he paid, according to the complaint, belonged to minors in the Charleston, South Carolina area, near where he served in local office.
Investigators also say they found material stored in an iCloud account tied to Hedgpeth’s personal email address, on his cellphone, and connected to his home address, an account they say was accessed frequently from his home internet router, tying the material directly to his residence and his own devices.
What He’s Accused of Doing
Prosecutors allege Hedgpeth used his iCloud account and social media to contact children directly, direct them to produce sexually explicit photos and videos, and pay them for the material in exchange. According to the charging documents, one alleged victim was 12 years old when the contact began, and Hedgpeth is accused of paying that child for content and separately pressuring the same child to produce material involving a 15-year-old sibling.
The complaint also alleges a pattern of deception in how contact was made and maintained: at times, prosecutors say, Hedgpeth pretended to be a minor himself while communicating with children, and at other times distributed existing child sexual abuse material to minors as a way of enticing them to produce and sell similar content back to him.
What He’s Facing
Hedgpeth faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison, a maximum of 30 years, lifetime supervision by the U.S. Probation Office, and mandatory sex offender registration if convicted.
Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated the case, and it is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Dean H. Secor and Elliott B. Daniels, as part of the Department of Justice’s nationwide Project Safe Childhood initiative, a program launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation through coordinated federal, state, and local enforcement.
Hedgpeth has not been convicted. All charges in a federal complaint are accusations, and defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
Part of a Broader Pattern in South Carolina
This case is not isolated. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for South Carolina has brought several similar cases in recent months, including a former Rock Hill teacher indicted in August for possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material, a former Columbia teacher indicted in July on charges of attempted production, distribution, and possession of the same, and a former Charleston County magistrate who pleaded guilty in July to possessing and distributing similar material. Hedgpeth’s case adds a sitting elected official to that list.