Man Indicted for Making Lewd Video with Child Present

SAN ANGELO, TX — A Rhome, Texas man has been indicted for exposing himself in front of a child, court documents state. 

Justin Hardee, 31, has been indicted by a Tom Green County grand jury for indecency with a child by exposure.

According to court documents, on Dec. 18, 2024, the investigator spoke with a child crimes investigator with the Texas Attorney General’s Office who had conducted a child sexual abuse investigation on the defendant, identified as Hardee.

The investigation revealed that Hardee had uploaded child pornography media files to an online cloud storage account as well as a Kik account. Kik is a chat program similar to Instagram or Snapchat where users can share media files.

Hardee allegedly conducted sexually charged conversations with other users on Kik regarding Hardee having sexual relations with a minor relative. There was also a video Hardee pleasuring himself in a vehicle with a toddler visible. He claimed to have made the video in a Walmart parking lot on Sherwood Way in 2021.

The investigator with the Attorney General’s Office conducted a search warrant on Hardee’s residence and located more than 20 media files saved to Hardee’s cellphone which depicted a very young male child, between three and six years old, engaging in lewd behavior with adults.

Hardee was arrested on December 27, 2024, and is currently an inmate in the Tom Green County Jail being held on $100,000 bond. He has a jury trial set for June 16, 2025.