Police Say Former Lake View Mayor Had Thousands of Child Porn Files
The former mayor of Lake View possessed thousands of illegal photos and videos depicting child pornography, according to a new court document filed Thursday.
Paul Anthony Calhoun spent four years as a Lake View town councilor and another four as mayor, and as the Thread first reported, he was taken into custody Wednesday morning and charged with a single count of possession of child pornography.
That felony charge appears to be the tip of the iceberg - a deposition filed Wednesday morning following Calhoun's arrest says police are searching a laptop, two iPads and a USB drive they found hidden in a lamp in a storage unit to determine the extent of Calhoun's alleged crimes.
A suspect can be charged with a felony for each picture or video they possess that depicts child pornography, and investigators say Calhoun had as many as 3,000 illegal files.
"At the time preliminary results were obtained from the search of the laptop, 1671 confirmed images of child pornography were found with an additional 1,752 being 'age difficult,'" investigators said in court documents.
That does not include any results from the hidden USB drive, which was found to contain additional photos and videos of the same material.
It's unclear Thursday how many charges Calhoun will ultimately face - the sheriff's office and DA worked together last year to bring 120 separate felony charges against one suspect caught with a trove of several hundred illegal files and Calhoun is accused of having a far larger collection.
For updates on the case if any are made available, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.
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