Airman Arrested At Sheppard Air Force Base On Child Porn Charges

An airman was arrested at Sheppard Air Force Base Thursday on accusations of having child pornography.

Staff Sgt. Joel Lavelle Calahan, 37, is charged with five counts of possession of child pornography — a third degree felony. He was released from the Wichita County Jail Friday afternoon on $50,000 total bail.

Sgt. Harold McClure, a Wichita Falls Police Department spokesperson, said an arrest warrant was served Wednesday morning at SAFB due to Calahan being a service member.

U.S. Air Force photo

Staff Sgt. Joel Lavelle Calahan is shown in this undated photo during a children's' event at Dyess Air Force Base. Calahan is charged with five counts of possession of child pornography — a third degree felony.

According to the arrest warrant affidavits:

On May 28, 2016, detectives with WFPD's Crimes Against Children Unit were called out to investigate a report of a child pornography. McClure said the reporting person had observed some images on Calahan's computer that appeared to be of children.

An evidentiary search warrant was obtained and executed later that day. Many computerized digital storage devices were collected and sent off to be forensically analyzed.

An ongoing review of the stored data revealed thousands of images, including images of children in various stages of undress and under the age of 18 with their genitalia exposed in “a lewd and lascivious manner.”

The images listed in the charges each depicted a completely nude prepubescent girl around the ages of 7 to 10 years old.

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