A Monterey man has been charged for possessing and sharing child sexual abuse material.
Special agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), working alongside the Cookeville Police Department and Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office, obtained the indictments charging 61-year-old Michael Joe Phillips.
In April, after receiving information from the Cookeville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit, TBI agents assigned to the Technical Services Unit began investigating Phillips.
During the investigation, agents developed information that Phillips possessed images consistent with child sexual abuse material.
On Monday, the Cumberland County Grand Jury returned indictments, charging Phillips with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor.
On Tuesday, authorities arrested Phillips without incident and booked him into the Cumberland County Jail.
He was being held on $90,000 bond at the time of this release Tuesday night.
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