The Winner: Pastor Steve Richardson
The Reason: This pastor of the First United Methodist Church traded in Child Pornography on both his personal computer, and his church computer.
ROYSE CITY, Texas - After his arrest in connection to a child pornography case, Pastor Steve Richardson appeared in court for the first time Thursday in downtown Dallas.
Authorities said the investigation has been underway for nearly a year. According to court documents, Richardson admitted to investigators that he traded child pornography from his work computer.
A search online for Richardson led to a MySpace page that revealed the pastor to be a father with a wife and two boys.
On the day before taking his job at the First United Methodist Church nearly two years ago, Richardson wrote, "We have been blessed with a newer and bigger home and have been overwhelmed by the kindness of our new church members."
Now, federal investigators say the 36-year-old pastor used the church's office computer for child pornography.
According to court documents, Richardson, under the user name "cowboysspades," sent dozens of pictures of girls under the age 10, including infants, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
Richardson was busted after he allegedly sent images to an undercover federal agent, who used another child pornography suspect's identity, authorities said.
Graphic online chats between Richardson and the agent are documented in the criminal complaint.
The court documents report when Richardson, under the user name cowboysspades, asked "Vlad," the undercover agent, about a child's age, he stated "even more awesome" when the agent responded four.
"Yeah, such a cute age," the agent responded.
"You ever doing anything with her?" cowboysspades asked.
Before serving as the pastor at First United Methodist Church in Royse City, the church's site said he worked in Boyd for five years as a pastor and also was an associate pastor and youth minister in Dallas area churches.
Thursday, family, friends and church members showed up to support Richardson at his first court appearance in federal court.
"The church holds the sanctity of the pastoral office and the place of the church as an environment of safety and security for all as an absolute value," read a statement released by the North Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. "No abuse of the pastoral office can or will be tolerated."
Robocop's Comment:
I know church leaders can go astray sometimes, but DAMN!
1 comment:
Wow...that is just SICK. Don't know what else to say about that.
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