Pastor arrested in child porn case

Derek M. Schwartzrock

A children’s pastor at Evangel Christian Center on Montgomery NE is to appear before a U.S. magistrate judge today on charges of receipt and possession of images on his computer showing children engaged in sexual activity.

Derek M. Schwartzrock, 34, was investigated by New Mexico State Police and Homeland Security Investigations and was arrested Wednesday at his apartment at 5800 Osuna NE.

The criminal complaint charges the activities took place between Dec. 31, 2011, and April 3, 2013, but may go back further.

Homeland Security investigators in Philadelphia tracking a suspect website traced it to Schwartzrock and found 700 pictures on his Facebook page of children police believe to be between 5 and 12 years old. Most are of pre-pubescent boys.

According to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint, the State Police online predator unit obtained a state search warrant for Schwartzrock’s apartment on March 25 and executed it Wednesday, taking away computer media, a smart phone, a digital camera and other items.

Officers told him he was not under arrest and was free to leave during the interview. The affidavit for his arrest says he initially tried to lie about his church position and claimed to be employed with a service that places advertisements in retail stores.

But after agents pointed to a Valentine’s Day card on his dresser sent to “Pastor Derek,” he acknowledged his work as a children’s pastor and said he knew agents were there because of images of naked boys on his computer. He allegedly told agents he had an estimated 55 gigabytes of child pornography on his computer.

He said “he understood that the images were of someone hurting children, but he wouldn’t hurt children himself,” the complaint says.

Schwartzrock agreed to take a polygraph about “hands on abuse of children” after agents “revisit(ed) some of the questions for inconsistencies,” and he told them he’d been downloading images for seven or eight years, it says.

Agents repeated that the polygraph in Santa Fe was voluntary and that he was not under arrest, according to the complaint. When the polygraph showed he was being untruthful about ever having touched a child inappropriately and agents pressed him on the issue, Schwartrock asked for an attorney.

The interview stopped, and Schwartzrock was arrested.
— This article appeared on page C1 of the Albuquerque Journal