Ladson Man Sentenced to 19 Years Federal Prison for Attempted Online Enticement of a Minor

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Joseph Daniel Bair, 40, of Ladson, has been sentenced to 19 years in federal prison for the attempted online enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

Evidence obtained in the investigation showed that in early November 2021, members of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) conducted an undercover investigation targeting online sexual offenders. As part of this investigation, an officer created an undercover online persona of a 13-year-old girl.

Bair responded to the undercover officer’s online persona’s social media ad and engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the undercover officer.  In their conversations, Bair discussed his desire to engage in various sex acts with the purported 13-year-old girl. On Dec. 5, 2021, Bair drove from Ladson to a predetermined location in Charleston County to meet the girl, and to engage in illicit sexual conduct with her.  When Bair arrived, he encountered law enforcement officers instead and was placed under arrest. 

At the time of the offense, Bair was on the South Carolina Sex Offender Registry based on a 2009 state conviction for criminal solicitation of a minor. Law enforcement officers also discovered that Bair was reporting to sex offender registry officials that he lived in Charleston when in fact he lived in Ladson.

United States District Judge Bruce Howe Hendricks sentenced Bair to 230 months imprisonment, to be followed by a lifetime term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the U.S. Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals, who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), including the Department of Homeland Security, Mount Pleasant Police Department, and Charleston Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Dean H. Secor is prosecuting the case.

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