A drag queen in Pennsylvania faces over 40 criminal charges, including 25 felony child pornography charges, following the conclusion of a two-year investigation.
According to The Post Millenial, Brice Patric Ryschon Williams allegedly uploaded and shared at least 135 videos on photos of child pornography.
In May 2020, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children submitted a tip about sexually explicit files including minors to the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General’s Child Predator Section.
The files were allegedly uploaded to a Dropbox with an email registered to Anastasia Diamond, or Ana D. This is the name Williams used when performing drag. At least 49 of the 76 files were found to contain children under 18 performing sexual acts, Tri-State Alert reported.
In July 2020, NCMEC submitted another tip about 10 more explicit files uploaded by the same user. Authorities determined at least 9 of those files contained child pornography.
A search warrant was eventually issued to Dropbox concerning Ana D’s account, and authorities found a total of 135 files containing child pornography, Tri-State Alert reported.
Two more files were uploaded to the Dropbox in December 2020, and authorities were able to validate one of them. Investigators finally tracked the home suspected of uploading the illegal files in 2021.
Investigators confirmed Williams was living in the home, and he was allegedly performing in drag as Anastasia Diamond, which matched the name associated with the Ana D email address. A recovery email address for the Ana D Dropbox account also included Williams’ real name.
Special Agent Travis Nye was finally able to obtain a search warrant for the home on June 22. Authorities carried out the warrant the next day and escorted Williams out of the house while they did so.
Does this prove children should not be exposed to drag shows?
Williams initially denied any involvement with child pornography, even as investigators found his phone number matched the backup phone number listed on the Ana D Dropbox account.
Investigators found at least 25 child pornography files on Williams’ phone, which Nye said was just a small sample of the explicit material on the phone. Williams finally admitted to searching for, possessing and sharing child pornography after his devices were found.
He told investigators he was first exposed to child pornography in 2014, and he subsequently began using cloud storage applications to receive and distribute it with others. He was arrested and taken Franklin County Corrections.
While Williams was initially unable to post a $100,000 bail, Tri-State Alert said in a subsequent article he had posted bail on June 24. His preliminary hearing is set for July 5.
Even so, local attorney Clint Barkdoll said the outlook is still bleak for Williams.
“On the legal side, this person is in big, big trouble,” Barkdoll said. “These are very difficult cases to defend. I’ve had some over the years and typically the evidence is an extensive forensic trail tying the defendant to these activities.
“The other thing here is I would not be surprised if you see more charges brought. Often times when these cases make their way into the system, it’s discovered through the forensic investigation that there were more files or there was more activity than there was originally reported.”
Since Williams faces 25 class 2 felony charges, Tri-State Alert said a conviction would bring “substantial prison time in a state facility.”
A Pennsylvania drag queen has been charged with 25 counts of child pornography following a two-year long investigationhttps://t.co/a9dGS5A9vz
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 26, 2022
Williams also faces 18 criminal counts for “use of a communications facility,” according to The Post Millenial.
While not all drag queens are distributing child pornography online, this investigation is a perfect example of the dangers drag shows present for children.
In an interview with The Western Journal, clinical sexologist Dr. Ingrid Thrall said drag shows are inherently sexual and, therefore, might not be appropriate for children.
“It’s not just a man dressing as a woman,” Thrall said. “It’s a man dressing as a sexual, very sexualized woman. So in that sense, it kind of objectifies women. And it, yeah, it is sexual in nature.
“I doubt that any parents would take a young child to a strip club. So I’m not at all opposed to the drag per say, but I am worried that that type of sexually explicit material for such a young child can change the trajectory of the child’s perception of their own sexuality.”
Drag shows are not an appropriate place for children to be, and Williams’ arrest is an extreme example of the danger they can present.
Even if not all drag queens are as evil as Williams, they are all performing inherently sexual shows. Children should never, for any reason, be exposed to that content.
