What happens when a judge goes lightly on a pervert?
He finds new victims!
Charles Isdell Jr. is the man arrested for carving out holes in the dressing rooms at the Old Navy in Aiken in 2010 and peeping at unsuspecting customers. He’s also the man who was caught in 2016 with a cell phone camera in the woman’s fitting room of the Kmart in North Augusta.
Despite guilty pleas for both crimes, judges gave him no prison time. And now, he’s allegedly victimized two young girls in Saluda County, raping one of them and convincing both juveniles to send him naked photos of themselves, according to authorities.
And one of the victims is his niece, authorities said.
Isdell was arrested Aug. 18 for seven offenses, including five felony sex crimes.
Among the allegations:
• Isdell molested a young girl while she was riding on an ATV with him on Old Goldmine Road.
• He entered the room of a sleeping girl and raped her. She woke up with Isdell having sex with her, a warrant says.
• Isdell gave juvenile girls alcohol and encouraged them to drink while they were at his camper.
• He convinced a juvenile girl to undress while on Facetime video chat and got her to send him nude photos of herself.
• The suspect threatened to tell a girl’s grandmother that she had sent nude photoraphs of herself to her boyfriend unless the girl also sent him nude photos of herself.
Saluda County Sheriff’s Chief Deputy Christopher Cockrell said their investigation revealed two victims in the case.
But why was Isdell free?
In the Old Navy case, prosecutors listened to the outrageous allegations that he was spying on customers, yet they still moved his case to municipal court. That’s where Magistrate Court Judge Tracy Carroll accepted a lesser plea of “disorderly conduct” and set him free with a fine.
More recently, he got probation in the Kmart case from Judge Doyet Early III after pleading guilty to aggravated breach of peace.
And after all his sleazy crimes, he wasn’t even required to register as a sex offender. That’s a great justice system!
Sources tell us that he and the mother of his two children lost custody of the juveniles because of the poor conditions of Isdell’s camper, where he had allowed the family to live.
His children were reportedly at the camper with him when Saluda County investigators surrounded it Aug. 18 to take the alleged rapist into custody.
For more crime news, pick up this week’s copy of The Jail Report. Here’s the cover.
