Local Deacon, Youth Basketball Coach Charged with Child Porn Possession

A Middletown Presbyterian Church deacon, Sunday School teacher and youth basketball coach for the Upward Bound Basketball League was arrested and charged in connection with possessing child pornography, according to officials.

Steven Daniel Almond, 54, of Parkside, surrendered to police and was charged on Thursday with disseminating photos and films of child sex acts and related offenses, according to the Delaware County District Attorney's Office.

Four computers, a portable hard drive, two USB flash drives, three cell phones and 22 CD/DVDs were seized from Almond's home, according to the DA's office.

Officials believe more than 50 videos, depicting children younger than 18 engaging in sexual acts, to be on the seized devices, according to the DA's office, and some of the videos appear to depict children younger than 5.

Middletown Presbyterian Church Rev. Douglas McPheeters said the church could not officially comment on the charges because it is an ongoing investigation however the church is corroborating with police and in the process of informing the congregation and parents, he said.

"We are deeply saddened by the situation," McPheeters said.

Through an online investigation to locate child pornography users, police located an IP address which was downloading explicit files. Officials then obtained a court order to gain the actual address of the Internet subscriber using that IP address from the Internet provider, which was determined to be Almond, according to the DA's office. 

Police conducted a search warrant at Almond's home on June 13, where Almond waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with police, according to the DA's office.

Almond estimated to police that he had about 30 files of teenage pornography on his computer and he believed the youngest child in one of the videos was about 13 or 14 years old, according to the DA's office.

He told police he knew it was illegal to "pay" for child pornography but did not think it was illegal to "download" child pornography because it was free and in a public domain, according to the DA's office.

Almond told police that he never had any inappropriate contact with any children, according to the DA's office.

Almond was remanded to the Delaware County Prison on $350,000 cash bail.