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Mom finds sexual texts on teen’s phone, GA cops say. Now, police chief charged

A Georgia police chief is accused of exchanging sexual texts with a teen girl while on duty, investigators say.
A Georgia police chief is accused of exchanging sexual texts with a teen girl while on duty, investigators say. Getty Images/iStockphoto

A South Georgia police chief accused of sending explicit text messages to a teenage girl is behind bars, according to state investigators.

Chief Ashley Wilson, 40, of the Nicholls Police Department was arrested on suspicion of inappropriate conduct involving a 15-year-old, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said in a June 20 news release.

McClatchy News reached out to the Nicholls Police Department for comment June 25 but didn’t immediately hear back.

Authorities accused the chief of police of sending sexual texts that were discovered by the teen’s mother, who alerted the city’s police department, according to the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office.

The incident was reported to the sheriff’s office, which asked the GBI to investigate.

Authorities learned Wilson had texted the teen multiple times, expressing interest in having a sexual relationship with her, the GBI and sheriff’s office reported.

“Many of these messages were sent while Wilson was on duty, raising serious concerns about misconduct and abuse of authority,” the sheriff’s office said.

Wilson was charged with three counts of enticing a child for indecent purposes and one count each of criminal attempt to commit child molestation and a violation of oath of office, according to the GBI.

He was arrested June 19 and taken to the Coffee County Jail, authorities said.

Nicholls is about a 125-mile drive southeast from Macon.

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This story was originally published June 25, 2025 at 10:21 AM with the headline "Mom finds sexual texts on teen’s phone, GA cops say. Now, police chief charged."

Tanasia Kenney
Sun Herald
Tanasia is a service journalism reporter at the Charlotte Observer | CharlotteFive, working remotely from Atlanta, Georgia. She covers restaurant openings/closings in Charlotte and statewide explainers for the NC Service Journalism team. She’s been with McClatchy since 2020.
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