Pastor On Trial For Making, Distributing Child Pornography Would Take Boys To National Parks Across Western US

Story out of Portland, Oregon: 

A 56-year-old Portland, Ore., pastor and former national youth camp official for the United Methodist Church made his initial appearance Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Denver on felony charges for allegedly producing child pornography while taking boys to national parks in Colorado and across the West, authorities say.

James Parkhurst, 56, who was arrested in Portland on Aug. 2, was indicted in late August by a federal grand jury in Denver and appeared in federal court on Monday, according to a news release by Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney Bob Troyer of the District of Colorado.

Parkhurst produced 163 child pornography images of five boys taken at national parks in Colorado and across the West and then sent them by U.S. mail to 15 states to child pornography collectors, according to court documents. The images include pictures of nude and partially nude boys between the ages of 9 and 12, some while the boys took baths or as they urinated.

The Oregon-Idaho Conference Board of Camp and Retreat Ministries named Parkhurst as its executive director in 2015, according to a board new release. Parkhurst, a United Methodist deacon and a native of Kentucky, attended and worked at camps throughout his life, the news release says. It said he was also a camp director in Detroit, overseeing four sites. He oversaw the camping and youth ministries for the Desert Southwest Conference for over a decade and was the vice chairman of the church’s national camp committee. Cont.

Story from - The Denver Post