Two Elmore County residents including a former state trooper arrested in Montgomery County child sex sting operation

Ryan Rhodes, 26, of Tallassee is no longer an Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Trooper. He resigned after being arrested for electronic solicitation of a child, traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act and resisting arrest.

According to an ALEA release Rhodes resigned his position following his early Friday morning arrest in Montgomery. But Rhodes wasn’t the only Elmore County resident apprehended in a sting operation.

Law enforcement officials held a press conference Monday explaining the operation where Rhodes and 10 other men were arrested in an east Montgomery hotel Thursday and Friday during an undercover law enforcement sting.

“This was all done through decoy work,” Montgomery County Sheriff Office assistant chief deputy Wesley Richardson. “There were no actual victims.”

Richardson said Rhodes and the other men encountered law enforcement online, in chat rooms and social media posing as children.

“They agreed to engage in unlawful sex acts with individuals they believed to be minors,” Richardson said. “These suspects then traveled to carry out these unlawful acts.”

Montgomery County Sheriff Derrick Cunningham called the arrests alarming, especially coming eight months after a similar operation in the county net 15 arrests.

“We are talking about human trafficking, sex trafficking and things in our county,” Cunningham said.

Cunningham said the suspects are not all from Montgomery. Four were from outside Montgomery. Two reside in Elmore County, one in Lee County and one from New York.

“We are talking about the people who want to come here and prey on our young people,” Cunningham said.

Dai Xing Chen, 45, of New Albany, New York; Subin Choi, 34, of Auburn; James Clifford Grier, 44, of Montgomery; Michael Lynn Hester, 54, of Montgomery; James LeGregory McGhee, 47, of Montgomery; William Robert Ogburn Jr., 44, of Montgomery; Justin Gregory Tomberlin, 36, of Deatsville; Joseph Carroll Vasseur III, 38, of Opelousas, Louisiana; Owen Delma Walker Jr., 57, of Montgomery and and Qu’Darrius D’arcy Ja’Quan White, 24, of Montgomery were arrested with Rhodes.

Tomberlin was charged with attempted human trafficking, electronic solicitation of a child and traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sexual act.

Montgomery County District Attorney Daryl Bailey said all had a $500,000 bond. 

Rhodes posted bail and has been released from the Montgomery County Jail.