Jon Sheptock, a Christian musician and former worship minister at a Texas Baptist Church, was arrested in late September on expenses of possession and manufacturing of kid pornography.
As reported by ABC 13, the arrest got here after his alleged sufferer testified that Sheptock stole a photograph of her 9 years in the past, when she was 17. “After the defendant (Sheptock) despatched the picture of the sufferer, he instructed her that he needed extra specific photographs of her,” reads the written testimony. “The defendant (Sheptock) then despatched her a video depicting somebody being bodily assaulted, accompanied by an announcement implying that he didn’t need that to occur to her.”
Courtroom data additionally accuse Sheptock of displaying the sufferer a number of nude pictures of adults and minors on his laptop. The habits allegedly continued as just lately as final October, in keeping with detectives, when Sheptock despatched a textual content message with a nude picture of younger ladies to the alleged sufferer.
A number of years earlier than his arrest, in keeping with The Unbiased, Sheptock sang the nationwide anthem at a Donald Trump rally in January 2022 earlier than posing for a photograph with the now-president.
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In keeping with the Baptist Press, Sheptock’s now-deleted web site mentioned he was born with no arms and one leg shorter than the opposite earlier than turning into “a thriving Christian recording artist and speaker.” He and his spouse have been married for 26 years and have three daughters.
Sheptock served as a worship minister on the First Montgomery Baptist Church, which confirmed in an announcement that he has been arrested on “expenses associated to little one pornography,” and that he was “instantly eliminated” from “all tasks on the church.”
“He didn’t have tasks overseeing youngsters within the church or college besides sometimes in a big group setting with different adults,” the church added. “At this level, we’ve got no data that signifies any of the youngsters in our care had been concerned, however we’re taking each precaution to guard our children and to keep up the integrity of our ministry.”
Montgomery County Constable Ryan Gable mentioned in an announcement that detectives from his Human Trafficking and Youngster Exploitation Unit arrested Sheptock on September twenty sixth at a ladies’s jail in Gatesville, Texas, the place he had been offering ministry companies to inmates.
If convicted, Sheptock faces between two and 20 years in jail.