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High-ranking member of Forsyth County Sheriff's Office arrested for child porn, fired
Grady Sanford Arrest
Forsyth County Sheriff's Office Chief Deputy Grady Sanford was arrested and fired on Tuesday, Nov. 10 after being charged with two counts of distribution of child pornography.
UPDATE (11:45 a.m. Thursday) — According to officials with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office, Sanford bonded out shortly after he was booked. His bond was set out $5,600. 


UPDATE (6:55 p.m. Tuesday) — According to a press release from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Forsyth County Chief Deputy Grady Sanford, 56, was arrested at his home in Canton and charged with two counts of distribution of child pornography after the GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit was notified on Friday, Nov. 6 by the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children that indicated "child sexual abuse images had been uploaded to the Internet using a popular email platform."

The IP address used to log into the email was traced back to Sanford's home, and he has been booked in the Cherokee County Jail.

Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870.


According to a message from Forsyth County Sheriff Ron Freeman, one of his office's top employees was arrested and fired on Tuesday, Nov. 10 after a search warrant was executed at his home "in reference to child pornography."

Freeman said he was contacted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation around 7:40 a.m. on Tuesday notifying him of a search warrant at the home of Chief Deputy Grady Sanford and "probable cause existed to make an arrest."

Sanford was immediately terminated from the sheriff's office, and the case is being handled by the GBI.

“To say this is a shock is a gross understatement," Freeman said. "We intentionally set our standards high at Forsyth County. Regardless of rank, every employee must meet those moral and legal standards. There is no room for this type of crime in our state, and certainly not in the law enforcement profession. Our trust and that of our community has been betrayed. I’ve made a commitment to be transparent, even when one of our own employees does wrong. No one is exempt and no one is above the law."

Sanford has more than 35 years of law enforcement experience, including previously serving as a captain with the Georgia State Patrol, and has been with the FCSO since January 2017.

According to his social media pages, Sanford has also served as an adjunct instructor at Reinhardt University and Bethel University, Section III representative for FBI National  Academy Associates, Inc., former president of the Georgia Chapter of FBI National  Academy Associates and with the Fairmount Police Department and Gordon County Sheriff's Office. 

(This story will be updated.)