The SOLAR Project - Sex Offender Legal Advocacy & Reform
Accountability WatchMonthly roundupAuthority & access
January 2026 catch-up

Authority, legitimacy, and institutional-access cases for January 2026

Monthly snapshot of arrests, pleas, sentencings, and institutional-accountability developments involving defendants who held meaningful roles of trust, authority, legitimacy, or institutional access. This roundup uses the broader January standard: inclusion can rest on the defendant’s trusted role even when the charged conduct was not necessarily directed at someone in that person’s immediate care.

Jurisdictions: U.S. federal and state; local institutions. Window: January 1, 2026, 12:00 AM through January 31, 2026, 11:59 PM (America/New_York).

Presumption of innocence

Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Entries marked as guilty pleas, convictions, or sentencings reflect the procedural stage reached in the cited reporting.

Registry note

Registry status is shown only where the reporting clearly supports it. When reporting did not mention prior registration, the chip display remains intentionally conservative.

At a Glance

  • January 2026 produced a heavy concentration of law-enforcement-linked cases, including current or former officers in Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, and New York.
  • Educator-linked defendants were also prominent: Jesus Moore, Carl David Innmon, Martin Bayhan, Jack Wilder, and Erika L. Morton all reached January plea or sentencing events, while the Winnsboro ISD matter centered on alleged concealment by school leadership.
  • The broader standard surfaced several medical-trust cases that a narrower pass might underweight, including Khursheed Haider, Christopher Sheerer, Jesse Roger Armstrong, and Calvin Eriksen.
  • The month was not limited to primary-offender stories. The Winnsboro ISD case stands out as an institutional shielding and oversight-failure entry, not a direct sexual-offense prosecution against the superintendents themselves.
  • Only one included case was clearly described in-source as involving a previously registered offender: Linwood Barnhill. Most others were not presented that way, reinforcing the editorial point that risk often emerges outside registry-centered assumptions.
Editorial frame

January’s mix is unusually useful for the project’s broader frame: police, educators, clergy, legislators, physicians, and school executives all appear in one month, with both direct offending and institutional shielding represented.

New Arrests & Charges

Withman Benjamin

Cobb County police officer

January 14, 2026
Georgia
Arrested / ChargedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Georgia authorities announced the arrest of Cobb County Police Officer Withman Benjamin on a charge of sexual battery against a child under 16. The GBI said the case arose from a child-abuse investigation and that the matter would be provided to the district attorney for prosecution.
Why this case is included
This is a straightforward authority-and-access case involving a current officer, a child-victim allegation, and a direct official source.
GBI release

Michael William Mohr

Reverend / church official

January 29, 2026
Illinois / Eastern District of Missouri
Arrested / ChargedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Federal prosecutors announced the arrest of an Illinois church official on a production charge after investigators alleged hidden-camera recordings involving juveniles. The charge places the case squarely in a clergy-and-institutional-access context.
Why this case is included
The defendant’s religious role and church-linked legitimacy make this a strong fit for the project’s authority framework.
DOJ release

Pleas / Convictions / Sentencings

Linwood Barnhill

Former Metropolitan Police Department officer

January 9, 2026
Washington, D.C.
SentencedRegistry: Previously registered
A former D.C. police officer was sentenced to 27 years in prison after prosecutors said he recruited minor girls to engage in commercial sex. The DOJ release described Barnhill as a registered sex offender at the time of sentencing.
Why this case is included
Clear law-enforcement authority case involving direct exploitation of minors, repeat offending, and the one included January source that clearly identified prior registry history.
DOJ release

Jesus Moore

Basketball coach at Lawrence High School / former school employee

January 13, 2026
Massachusetts / New Hampshire
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former school employee was sentenced to 121 months in federal prison for traveling with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a student. The DOJ release said the case involved transporting a student across state lines, supplying alcohol, and sexual conduct when the student could not consent.
Why this case is included
Textbook educator-and-coach abuse-of-trust case involving direct student access and misuse of institutional position.
DOJ release

August Price Gildehaus

Former Grain Valley police officer

January 28, 2026
Missouri
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former police officer was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for enticing a 15-year-old girl and producing sexual images and videos. The case joins a broader January cluster of police-linked misconduct.
Why this case is included
Strong police-authority case involving minor exploitation and image production, with clear public-trust and legitimacy concerns.
DOJ release

Carl David Innmon

Former Austin ISD elementary teacher

January 6, 2026
Austin, Texas
Guilty pleaRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former elementary school teacher pleaded guilty in federal court to possessing child sexual abuse material. The January event was a plea rather than a student-abuse charge, but the school role remains central to the editorial frame.
Why this case is included
Under the broadened standard, the trusted elementary-school role itself is material: this is an authority case even without a current-student allegation in the plea event.
DOJ release

Martin Bayhan

Former Catholic-school teacher

January 29, 2026
Ohio
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Bayhan was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing child pornography. The DOJ release also noted that he had been fired decades earlier for hands-on sex offenses against students while serving as a Catholic-school teacher.
Why this case is included
The January event was a possession sentencing, but the source directly ties the case back to prior abuse in a school setting, strengthening the institutional-risk frame.
DOJ release

Jack Wilder

Former teacher

January 27, 2026
New Jersey
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former teacher was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material. The January sentencing again puts a trusted school-role defendant in a CSAM-centered case.
Why this case is included
Another educator case where the trusted role remains editorially significant even though the January event was a CSAM sentence rather than a current student-abuse allegation.
DOJ release

Calvin Eriksen

Surgeon

January 29, 2026
Wisconsin
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Dr. Calvin Eriksen was sentenced to 72 months in federal prison for distributing child pornography. The case reflects how child-exploitation offending can appear inside high-trust medical roles.
Why this case is included
Medical authority and public legitimacy make this more than a generic CSAM case for Accountability Watch’s institutional-risk frame.
DOJ release

Khursheed Haider

Pulmonologist / doctor

January 9, 2026
California
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A Placer County doctor was sentenced to nine years in prison for distribution of child sexual abuse material. Federal prosecutors explicitly highlighted the significance of prosecuting defendants in positions of trust like Haider.
Why this case is included
The physician role is central here. The source itself frames Haider as part of the positions-of-trust problem the project tracks.
DOJ release

Christopher Sheerer

Former Boston Children’s Hospital anesthesiology fellow; previously affiliated with Johns Hopkins

January 29, 2026
Massachusetts
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former pediatric cardiac anesthesiology fellow at Boston Children’s Hospital was sentenced to 22 years in prison for producing, possessing, and distributing child sexual abuse material. DOJ also noted his prior fellowship affiliation with Johns Hopkins.
Why this case is included
High-salience institution-linked case involving elite pediatric-hospital credentials, underscoring how prestige and professional legitimacy can mask serious risk.
DOJ release

Stuart J. McHenry

Former Steuben County sheriff’s deputy

January 15, 2026
New York
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former sheriff’s deputy was sentenced to 108 months in prison on child-pornography charges. Prosecutors said the case also involved seeking, receiving, and distributing files.
Why this case is included
Law-enforcement legitimacy remains editorially significant even where the January event centers on CSAM rather than direct badge-mediated abuse.
DOJ release

Jesse Roger Armstrong

Former physician / psychiatric resident

January 23, 2026
Florida
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former physician was sentenced to 90 months in federal prison for distribution of child pornography. Like other January healthcare entries, the case highlights child-exploitation risk within professional authority roles.
Why this case is included
Another healthcare-authority case where the trusted role matters even without a patient-specific allegation in the January event.
DOJ release

Erika L. Morton

Former kindergarten teacher

January 28, 2026
Missouri
Guilty pleaRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former kindergarten teacher pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and admitted sending child sexual abuse material through Kik. The offense did not need to involve a current classroom victim for the institutional-trust point to matter.
Why this case is included
A clear educator-role case supporting the broader editorial point that trusted school actors do not have to offend directly against children in their classrooms for the institutional-risk issue to be real.
DOJ release

David S. Becker

Former paramedic / firefighter

January 7, 2026
Missouri
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Becker was sentenced to 151 months in prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor and child pornography-related charges. The case places a former first responder inside the same January authority and legitimacy pattern seen across police, education, clergy, and medicine.
Why this case is included
Trusted first-responder role plus serious child-sex-related charges make this a strong example of how public-service legitimacy does not insulate against exploitative offending.
DOJ release

Institutional / Political Misconduct

Rayshawn Deon Taylor

Former Durham Police Department corporal

January 15, 2026
Durham, North Carolina
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former Durham police officer was sentenced after admitting he sexually assaulted a man during a welfare check and threatened arrest if the victim reported it. The DOJ release also said Taylor deleted a translation application used during the encounter and did not activate his body-worn camera.
Why this case is included
This is direct misuse of police authority, with sexual abuse carried out through official power and coercive efforts to suppress disclosure.
DOJ release

Robert John "RJ" May III

Former South Carolina state lawmaker

January 14, 2026
South Carolina
SentencedRegistry: No prior registration noted
A former state legislator was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison for distributing child sexual abuse material. The case carries unusual editorial value because the defendant held elected legitimacy rather than a classic caregiving role.
Why this case is included
Public-official case showing that serious child-exploitation risk can sit outside registry-centered stereotypes and outside the most familiar institutional-abuse categories.
DOJ release

Brian David Wilcox and Aaron David Nation

Former and current Winnsboro ISD superintendents

January 12–18, 2026
Texas
Arrested / ChargedRegistry: No prior registration noted
Arrest affidavits reported by KLTV alleged that the former superintendent and current superintendent at Winnsboro ISD failed to report two separate sex crimes involving district employees, and that the current superintendent also refused to turn over evidence and wiped his phone ahead of a meeting with a Texas Ranger.
Why this case is included
Important shielding and oversight-failure case. The inclusion logic here is institutional concealment, not primary sexual offending by the superintendents themselves.
KLTV reporting

Watchlist

  • Winnsboro ISD: watch for additional administrator or staff charges, civil litigation, and more detail on the two underlying employee sex-crime matters.
  • Michael William Mohr: watch for added counts, additional victims, or broader church and institutional questions as the federal case develops.
  • Withman Benjamin: watch for added state charges, prior-complaint reporting, or departmental oversight issues.
  • Medical-trust cluster: Sheerer, Haider, Armstrong, and Eriksen are worth tracking for licensing, credentialing, hospital, or medical-board consequences.
  • Law-enforcement cluster: Barnhill, Taylor, Gildehaus, McHenry, and Benjamin collectively make police-linked offending one of January’s clearest patterns to monitor for appeals, decertification, civil claims, or department-response fallout.
Framing note

This roundup tracks accountability developments involving people in positions of trust, authority, legitimacy, or institutional access. Inclusion does not imply all cases are identical, and it does not imply that prior sex-offender registration was present or would have functioned as an effective warning system.

Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Registry-status notes are limited to what the cited reporting clearly states and should not be read as a substitute for the full procedural history of any case.