18-year-old with 10 felony child pornography charges freed from jail, released to mother
An 18-year-old accused of distributing child pornography of girls as young as four years old spent two hours in Mecklenburg County’s jail before being released to his mother with no bond due.
Brett Kimbrell’s quick release — something the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Fraternal Order of Police said is “too often seen in Mecklenburg County” — left law enforcement outraged and generated criticism on social media.
The Cornelius Police Department obtained a warrant for Kimbrell’s arrest Thursday and later arrested the teen in his parents’ townhouse near Lake Norman. They charged him with 10 counts of felony second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor.
According to Mecklenburg County Jail logs, Kimbrell was jailed at 11:36 a.m. Friday and released at 1:31 p.m. the same day.
Mecklenburg Magistrate Leigh Peters released Kimbrell back into his mother’s custody. The “custody release” meant Kimbrell did not have to pay any bond, according to court documents.
“Given the serious nature of these charges, which involve the safety and well-being of children, we find this decision troubling and concerning,” the Cornelius Police Department wrote in a news release Friday. “The release of this defendant, especially under such circumstances, undermines the gravity of the situation and raises significant concerns about the risk to public safety, particularly the safety of minors in the community.”
After his first appearance in Mecklenburg Country District Court Monday, Kimbrell and his mother, Melody Kimbrell, declined to comment on his charges and police reactions.
District Court Judge Fritz Mercer, Jr., did not discuss any case details and set Jan. 28 as a next court appearance.
Sex crimes in Charlotte
According to a tip submitted through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Kimbrell in September uploaded 12 files to the text messaging app “Kik” and later sent them to other users. In October, according to a second tip, he uploaded another file and sent it.
According to an arrest warrant, Kimbrell sent 10 videos of girls as young as 4 years old being raped or forced to perform sexual acts.
According to police, the videos collectively showed 11 children. One showed two underage girls together. One showed a young girl with “skinned knees.”
Two girls were between 4 and 6, two between 5 and 8, three were between 8 and 10, one between 11 and 13 and one between 12 and 15.
Kimbrell knew what he was sending, police said. Police later determined Kimbrell had used computers registered to his mother and another man.
Reporting child sexploitation
United States federal law defines child pornography as “any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct involving a minor (a person less than 18 years old).” The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children refers to these images as “’Child Sexual Abuse Material’ to most accurately reflect what is depicted — the sexual abuse and exploitation of children,” according to the organization’s website.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has an exploitation CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.org.
Bond concerns in Mecklenburg courts
This isn’t the first time local police have called attention to low bonds set by Mecklenburg County magistrates.
In June, Charlotte Police Chief Johnny Jennings said a $50,000 bond for a 22-year-old charged with rape and murder was much too low.
“Disappointed doesn’t begin to describe how I feel in the decision to set a bond that low for a suspect charged with such serious violent felonies,” he said in a statement in June. “I have always maintained that there is no bond amount that is sufficient for a community’s peace of mind regarding their safety.”
In 2022, The Charlotte Observer published a column where Jennings, addressing low bonds for violent crimes, wrote that “arbitrary, fluctuating amounts demonstrate the inconsistencies we are repeatedly seeing in our criminal justice system across North Carolina... We have violent, repeat offenders hurting members of communities, bonding out on low amounts and continuing to prey on innocent N.C. citizens, committing more violent crimes and getting arrested and released again and again.”
