A Republican judge in Caroline County, Maryland, took his own life when law enforcement officials came to arrest him for possession of illegal child sexual pictures, The Baltimore Sun reported Friday.
According to the report, “Judge Jonathan G. Newell, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:43 a.m. from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced. A judge since 2016 and before that Caroline County’s top prosecutor for more than a decade, he was to be taken into custody on federal charges of sexual exploitation of a child, prosecutors said.”
“A boy that Newell took on a hunting trip on Hoopers Island discovered a hidden camera in the bathroom on July 23, and his parents reported it to police,” The Sun reported.
“The FBI interviewed several young males, who said they had been to the hunting lodge with Newell and that while in the bathroom, Newell checked their bodies for ticks, according to a criminal complaint filed Thursday in federal court and unsealed Friday following his death,” continued the report. “Authorities searched Newell’s home, truck and judicial office, and located a hard drive in his den that they said contained numerous videos of young men showering. Newell can be seen on the footage setting the camera up, the FBI said. In one video clip, he can be seen searching a young man’s naked body for ticks.”
When Newell was confronted by authorities, he went into another room, where he is believed to have “chewed up and swallowed” a camera memory card that may have held more incriminating pictures.
This news comes amid numerous other underage sex allegations against prominent Republican figures.
A top Minnesota GOP strategist was disowned by the party after his arrest for allegedly paying hush money to an underage girl involved in his sex trafficking scheme. And longtime Trump ally Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is under federal investigation for possibly transporting an underage girl over state lines for sex, allegations he vehemently denies and claims are fabricated as part of an extortion plot against him.
