A former McAlester minister was formally charged this week after his Friday arrest on a child pornography complaint.
The McAlester News-Capital reports that Larry Jones, 65, is charged with one felony count of possessing obscene or indecent writings.
Jones was arrested last week after his wife printed a document which Jones allegedly wrote, which described graphic sexual activity involving three young girls in his church. Police say Jones admitted to writing the story, but said it was purely fantasy. "He said he had no intention of acting on it," McAlester Police Sgt. Chris Morris told Fox23 news. "It's just something he's been battling in his head." Police do not believe he had inappropriate contact with the children named in the story.
When Jones's wife turned the story over to McAlester police, she said that she had discovered her husband looking at child pornography about a year and a half ago. However, she did not report a crime at that time, and the couple has since gotten rid of the computer involved in the alleged incident. Investigators serving a search warrant have seized two other computers and an external hard drive from the home.
After finding the story, Jones's wife left him, and upon his arrest, his church removed him as a pastor and member of the McAlester Missionary Baptist Church.
Although the former minister was arrested on a child pornography complaint, it is interesting to note that, as of this writing, he has not been charged with possession of child pornography. While further investigation may or may not turn up pornographic images of children, at this time, no evidence of child porn has been discovered.
However, Oklahoma has strict obscenity laws, and writings that depict sexual activity involving children violate the state's indecency laws, which are included in Title 21 Chapter 39 of the criminal code: "Oklahoma Law on Obscenity and Child Pornography."
"Obscene Material" is defined in 21 O.S. �1024.1:
"Obscene material" means and includes any representation, performance, depiction or description of sexual conduct, whether in any form or on any medium including still photographs, undeveloped photographs, motion pictures, undeveloped film, videotape, optical, magnetic or solid-state storage, CD or DVD, or a purely photographic product or a reproduction of such product in any book, pamphlet, magazine, or other publication or electronic or photo-optical format, if said items contain the following elements:
a. depictions or descriptions of sexual conduct which are patently offensive as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards,
b. taken as a whole, have as the dominant theme an appeal to prurient interest in sex as found by the average person applying contemporary community standards, and
c. a reasonable person would find the material or performance taken as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, educational, political, or scientific purposes or value.
In 21 O.S. � 1021, anyone who "willfully and knowingly . . . Writes, composes, stereotypes, prints, photographs, designs, copies, draws, engraves, paints, molds, cuts, or otherwise prepares, publishes, sells, distributes, keeps for sale, knowingly downloads on a computer, or exhibits any obscene material or child pornography" is guilty of a felony. Writing obscene stories that "are patently offensive" to the "average person applying contemporary community standards" is punishable by 30 days to 10 years in prison and a fine of $500 to $20,000.
