Watching, recording,
posting your most private momen.
Hey, this is Sergeant Scott
Prall with Athens Clarke
County Police Department.
That's the voice of Caitlyn
Brooks talking to police.
He started to be really creepy
and there was some weird things
going on in her bathroom.
Emily remembers when her sister Caitlin
rented a room to Avery Hogan Pendergraph. We
believe that he was using a cam,
a camera hidden in plain sight,
capturing images of her naked in
the bathroom, Images police say
were then posted on* sites and
chat rooms with a picture of her
driver's license and credit car.
Police reports say he added mess
most too offensive to repeat,
but one reveals his intent.
I want to truly rob her of her private
life in a full and cruel degrading way.
Through the course of this
investigation, your name came u.
The police investigation eventuy
led officers from Athens.
To a bedroom inside his
parents' home in La Grange.
There, they found several more cameras
hidden in a key fob than smoke alarm.
More than 100 pages detail the
dozens of accounts Pentograph created
to use the images he collected.
This case has started
out small and gone crazy.
Local police, the GBI,
Homeland Security and even offis
in Russia worked together trackg
down accounts with names like
Atlanta* and Wife is My Slave.
I believe that he has photoshopd
your face onto certain bodies.
The hidden cameras had been plad
in bathrooms at a Starbucks chu.
And dorm at UGA police say they
found documents on grooming children.
One e-mail discussed how to takd
keep a little girl for sex. He s
creating images of children in addition
to possessing pornographic. Imas
Pendergrass crime span a decade across 2
Georgia counties more than 140 miles apart.
Despite the distance,
prosecutors work together to create a
plan to keep him locked up for .
But in an Athens Clarke County courtroom,
that plan, without warning, cha.
I've never felt too violated in
my in my life. Prosecutors were
already familiar with Pendergra.
In 2014, he faced 21 felony
charges for invasion of privacy.
I just met him going up the stairwell.
Samantha, one of Pendergrass first victims,
asked us to conceal her identit.
He had been begging me incessany
to send him some pictures of myf
about five years later,
long after they had parted ways.
She would learn he posted those pictures,
along with her personal information, online.
And she wasn't the only victim.
Still, those 21 felonies
turned into two misdemeanors.
His punishment? Probation. It
was infuriating because we
knew that it wasn't over.
As soon as his probation was up,
Samantha says Pentograph used
various fake profiles to reconn.
And he quickly found new victim.
But it would take years for pole
and his victims to find out.
Did you ever allow him to record
videos of you guys having sex?
Never. Never consented.
Anything like that? No.
No, I don't. Definitely not.
According to police reports,
Pendergraph wasn't just looking
for sexually explicit content.
He wanted control writing onlin.
Her body isn't hers anymore.
It is yours forever.
Your call or giving me a panic
attack? Do not call me again.
This is part of a call. Not with police,
but with Pendergraph in jail.
A call to his ex-girlfriend.
I'm calling you because I love .
And I'm and I feel like I'm gon.
You are a liar. Everything you say is alive.
Police believe Pentegraph
sexually assaulted her,
then posted the images on* sites.
They had already tracked down another
woman they believe he raped unconscious.
I have not done that to you. Are you there?
True? County District Attorney
Herbert Cranford said.
That call would have been a key piece
of evidence had the case gone to trial.
I do not believe he's redeemabl.
I don't think he's that hard to.
I mean knowing that I don't say that often,
but there are people we prosecute that I
believe that about and he's one of them.
There is a lawsuit right now
here in Athens Clarke County
that accuses the District Attory
of failing to do her job.
Deborah Gonzalez sent a memo ouo
her staff after winning electio.
Among the things she
tells them is to evaluate.
Take a closer look at any case that may
lead to a mandatory prison sent.
What is the victims of Avery Hon
Pendergraph who believe that poy
impacted their fight for justic?
Avery Hogan Pendergraph,
a sexual predator with charges
in two Georgia counties.
Accused of secretly recording
people to post naked images of m
on* and social media sites.
11 Alive spoke with one of his victims.
So I spent many years in therap,
really trying to trust my own
judgment about other people
in Troop County.
Pendergraph pled guilty to racketeering,
invasion of privacy and sexual
exploitation of children.
His sentence? 50 years behind b,
or at least on paper.
In reality, for those kinds of crimes,
Pentagraph could go free in seven years.
It happened before true County District
Attorney Herbert Cranford recald
the case of Peter Mallory. The
judge gave him a 1000 year sent.
Like to make a point, I think,
but the parole board let him go
after seven years and five mont.
The only way to guarantee a longer prison
sentence for Pendergraph would a
guilty plea to rape and aggravated*.
They come with a mandatory
minimum of 25 years in prison
without the possibility of paro.
But those alleged crimes happened in Athens.
It would be up to the DA there to prosecute,
according to emails obtained
by 11 Live Investigates.
At one point they did agree Pendergraph
should face life in prison.
But when Pendergraph refused to plead guilty,
the prosecutor in Athens decided
to dismiss the charges rather
than fight him in court.
I I can't imagine a detective sg
these terrible things that this person
has done day after day and theno
see it all just disappear. Inde,
the lead detective stated his disgust
in this e-mail to the DA writin.
There are many sad things to coe
from this case, but one of the t
disheartening is that your offi.
Did not even try.
The prosecutor behind that
decision would not comment,
but District Attorney Deborah
Gonzalez defended the deal.
Because we had victims and we wd
to get justice for those victim.
They did not want to go forward with a trial.
They did not want to testify.
But in a letter written by one f
the victims to the parole board,
she says the DA's office told hr
Pendergraph was pleading guilty to*.
And that whatever the charge.
It would add to his time behind bars.
One of them actually wrote any
written statement to the parole board.
I feel very lied to and
betrayed by the Athens DA.
Yeah, I would have liked her toe
written that to me so that I wod
know one of the victims would nt
have been able to respond becaue
that she actually took her own .
Were you aware of that?
No, I was not.
Instead, the DA's office told
the judge it wanted to drop her
charges because that victim.
Caitlin Brooks had left the sta.
I'm just so angry. Hurt so bad.
Her father is still barely ableo
speak about his daughter's deci.
Never not blame him for all of .
After the pornographic posts were discovered,
Caitlin couldn't stay focused at work.
She dropped out of law school.
To move back home but could nevr
restore her sense of safety.
I remember in the middle of
the night she woke me up.
Dad, I think somebody's
in the attic with cameras,
with cameras and stuff.
I said baby, there's no way.
The same year Pentagraph took his plea,
about 1/3 of the cases on the
court docket were thrown out.
22% of the felony charges that remained
were also dismissed or reduced o
a misdemeanor as part of a plea.
And of the 18 trials,
the office lost 14 charges like murder,
aggravated assault and child molestation.
Gone. Even now,
court records document cases delayed or
even dismissed because the DA's office
is severely understaffed or not prepared.
It's why Pendergrass victims are
now appealing to the Parole Boao
consider the risk of his releas.
Help me understand
the impact that this is had on r
life. An extreme sense of shame.
The victim impact statements are
full of the same words shame,
anxiety and depression.
And pendergrass.
Victims believe that was
always a part of the plan,
part of his betrayal.
I want you to know the name Hogn
Pendergrass and if you ever come
across them on the street one d,
I want you to run in the other direction.