A former Sherwood church pastor pleaded innocent to multiple child pornography charges Wednesday in Sherwood District Court.
David G. Reynolds, 40, was ordered to be held at the Pulaski County jail in lieu of $250,000 bond by Judge Milas Hale. Sherwood police on Monday arrested Reynolds on 70 felony counts of distributing, possessing or viewing of matter depicting sexually explicit conduct involving a child.
Reynolds had been a pastor for more than five years at Cornerstone Bible Fellowship in Sherwood before his arrest. The nondenominational church said in a statement that Reynolds was removed from his position in early March after he admitted to being "engaged in pornography."
The church said it asked Reynolds whether he had viewed child pornography, and Reynolds said he had "not knowingly done so."
A court affidavit released Wednesday states that Reynolds used a private Twitter account to view and exchange child pornography in December and January. He called himself "Candy Man" on the social media service, and stated on his profile, "I follow first, only locked accounts with similar content," according to the court filing.
Twitter reported the account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and provided Arkansas authorities with 122 images found on the account, the affidavit states. Sherwood Police detective Frank Spence wrote in the affidavit that, through court subpoenas, police obtained Internet protocol addresses and an email address associated with the account in early February.
That data led investigators to Reynolds, and it also showed "users accessing the account from various places outside Arkansas," Spence wrote.
Police spokesman Sgt. Jason Hopkins said Wednesday that additional arrests and charges had not been ruled out in the case.
"I'm sure they're looking into it," he said.
Cornerstone Bible Fellowship on Wednesday had removed all traces of Reynolds from its website, which has pastor biographies and photos, and videos of pastors' weekly sermons. But a cached version of the website contains a 36-minute video of Reynolds preaching.
In the video, a bearded Reynolds reads Bible passages from an Apple iPad and speaks to the congregation through a small headset microphone. He wears an Apple Watch around his wrist.
Reynolds jokes in the video about growing up in Little Rock and the "cult" of his favorite sports team, the Arkansas Razorbacks. He talks about the bonds between people, known and unknown.
"If you are a sincere follower of Jesus Christ, then you and I have a common union together," he tells worshippers, smiling.
That sermon, dated Feb. 24, was the last of Reynolds' uploaded to the Cornerstone Bible Fellowship website.
Eight days later, Sherwood police raided his home and questioned him for the first time in the child pornography case. According to the court affidavit, police found data on Reynolds' iPhone and iPad that further connected him to the "Candy Man" account, as well as a separate Twitter account with the handle "luvsomecandy."
"Reynolds acknowledged having an addiction to adult pornography," the affidavit states, "but denied viewing any child pornography or accessing the aforementioned accounts on his telephone, despite evidence to the contrary."
Police said Reynolds' had photos of a 13-year-old girl in a bikini on his cellphone, and that the girl attended Cornerstone Bible Fellowship. Reynolds reportedly got the photos from the girl's Instagram account.
None of the pornographic images showed church members, police said.
Reynolds states on his LinkedIn profile that before he joined Cornerstone Bible Fellowship, he spent 10 years as a pastor at Grace Baptist Church of Sarasota, Fla., and Grace Baptist Church of Spring Hill, Fla. Neither of the Tampa Bay-area churches had responded to messages seeking comment Wednesday.
Hopkins said he didn't know whether investigators had spoken to the churches about Reynolds' arrest.
"I'm sure if they suspect anything, they'll contact the places he's lived before," he said.
Reynolds remained in the Pulaski County jail late Wednesday.
Metro on 05/12/2016