Cookeville TN husband and wife arrested for sexual exploitation of teenager www.privateofficer.com
COOKEVILLE TN April 14 2012 – A husband and wife were arrested here yesterday for sexual exploitation of a 16-year-old girl they brought here from Nashville, police said.
Lee Alexander Caudill, 24, and his wife, Trendella Rose Caudill, 21, both of 800 E. Spring Street, Cookeville, are charged with sexual exploitation of a minor, according to warrants taken Thursday by Cookeville Police Detective Sgt. Yvette Demming.
The case began late Wednesday night when someone at the 800 E. Spring Street apartment complex where the couple lives called police and complained about a loud party going on in one apartment, says a report by Officer Jimmy Blankenship.
“Second shift had responded there earlier in reference to a loud party involving partially clothed two females in the back of the residence,” the officer’s report says.
“Upon our arrival, I could hear loud shouting coming from the apartment. The resident, Lee Caudill, came to the door. I asked him if everything was all right and he invited us in.”
Sgt. Jeff Johnson and Officer Chris Lynn went upstairs “where the argument was taking place” and Officer Blankenship interviewed Lee Caudill, the report says.
Allegedly, Lee Caudill told the officer that he, his wife, and her friend (a 16-year-old girl) had been “drinking all night.”
He also told the officer that he and his wife had met the girl online and that they had gone to Nashville the previous day to pick her up.
During the investigation, nude photos of the girl were found on Lee and Trendella Rose Caudill’s cell phones, the report says.
The phones were confiscated and the Caudills were arrested and taken to the Putnam County jail. The girl was taken to the Putnam Juvenile Detention Center and was cited for underage drinking.
The officers also notified the Department of Children’s Services about the incident, and a relative came to the apartment to take custody of the Caudill couple’s young child, the officers said.
The warrants on file in the case allege that both Caudills used their cell phones “to take several sexually explicit photographs of a minor female” that were stored on their phones and that were “transmitted to another adult’s cell phone.”
At the jail, bond for the Caudills was set at $5,000 each. They have a May 21 court date.
Source: Herald Citizen
