JONESBORO -- A youth minister was charged with possessing child pornography Wednesday, after his wife found images of young girls on a computer they were sharing, Jonesboro police said.
Tony Waller, 39, the youth pastor of Jonesboro First Assembly, was released on a $2,500 bond set by Craighead County District Judge Keith Blackman.
According to an arrest affidavit, Waller's wife, Angela Waller, told Jonesboro police officers that she was looking for a file April 30 on a laptop computer the two used when she found several file folders that she did not recognize.
She found "thousands of images of prepubescent girls either completely nude or scantily clad," Jonesboro police Detective Brandon King wrote in the affidavit. Angela Waller confronted her husband, who confessed he had been addicted to child pornography for more than 20 years, according to the affidavit.
Police confiscated the computer, along with a second hard drive, and found "a very large amount" of pornography, King said.
Bill Stanley, a Jonesboro attorney representing Waller, did not immediately return a telephone message left Wednesday evening.
Waller and his wife were hired as the Jonesboro church's youth pastors in April 1999, said Jonesboro First Assembly senior pastor Matt Smith.
Tony Waller was fired Friday, Smith said.
He is the second northeast Arkansas minister charged with possession of child pornography in a month. Authorities arrested John-Mark Wilson, 45, the pastor of Brookland Church of Christ, on April 8 after police said they found pornography on a computer taken from his home.
State Desk on 05/07/2015