Courts and Crime

    A 45-year-old Rhode Island man, who contacted a local 11-year-old autistic girl through the Internet, will spend 15 years in prison on four child porn charges.
    Paulo B. Tomas, of Cumberland, Rhode Island, was arrested in January by Rhode Island State Police. The charges were related to a child sexual exploitation investigation in Bedford County.

    A former golf pro at Bedford Country Club will have to pay back $24,000 he embezzled from the club, but won’t spend any time in jail for his two embezzlement convictions.
    Michael Edward Thompson, 47, of Stanley, Virginia, was sentenced to five years in prison on the convictions, but all of that time was suspended by Judge James Updike during his sentencing hearing in Bedford Circuit Court Friday.

    On Friday evening August 18, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the Bedford Magistrate’s Office advising a female was in their office reporting that she had been assaulted.
    A Bedford County Sheriff’s deputy responded and the woman advised that she had been assaulted by her boyfriend, Brandon Johnson, earlier in the day. She said that Johnson also pointed a shotgun at her and assaulted her with it, according to a report from the BCSO.

    On August 4 investigators with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office assigned to the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce (SOVA-ICAC) began investigating a case involving the solicitation of child pornography.

A 15-year-old child victim living in Bedford County was allegedly solicited online multiple times by a suspect using Facebook Messenger. After multiple search warrants were executed on the electronic service provider, 23-year-old Bobby Matthew Fisher of 2243 Bedford Highway, of his prior convictions.