Madison County sheriff’s deputy charged with sex crimes exploiting minors

Bruce A. Harvey

Charlottesville, VA – A Madison County Sheriff’s Office detective was arrested Wednesday, May 3, and charged with four federal counts relating to the sexual exploitation of minors, according to a joint statement from Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle, Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Virginia State Police Colonel Steve W. Flaherty and Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Richmond Division John J. Lenkart.

Bruce A. Harvey, 40, of Reva, Va., has been charged with two counts of transporting minors across state lines with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity and two counts of interstate travel with minors with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct.

The alleged criminal activity involved two minor female victims who had contact with Harvey while he worked as a karate instructor. The alleged criminal conducted occurred between 1998 and 2007.

Harvey, a former instructor at the Virginia Tong Leong School of Karate in Madison, was assigned to the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force [ICAC]. He appeared Wednesday in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Charlottesville and remains in custody pending further court action.

The investigation of the case is ongoing and being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Virginia State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Nancy S. Healey and Lauren S. Kupersmith, Trial Attorney for the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the United States Department of Justice will prosecute the case for the United States.

Anyone with information about this case or about a potential victim is asked to contact the FBI at 800-CALL-FBI.