GRANITE FALLS, N.C. — A former Caldwell County pastor who was arrested last November on multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from possession of explicit material is facing a new federal charge related to receipt of child pornography.
The latest charge against Ashley James Crouse, 52, former pastor of New Vision Baptist Fellowship in Granite Falls, carries a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Crouse was arrested on Nov. 3, 2023, following an investigation by state and local authorities based upon a tip provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Following his arrest, Crouse was initially charged with four counts of second-degree exploitation of a child. Four additional counts of third-degree sexual exploitation of a child were added later.
At the time of his arrest, authorities said the case could be adopted by the federal courts.
A recently released affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Richard Sutherland Jr. in U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina to establish probable cause for the new federal charge revealed new details about Crouse’s case.
Sutherland’s affidavit said investigators found more than 10,000 sexually explicit images of children on multiple electronic devices that were seized from Crouse’s home and from the church after search warrants were executed on the day of Crouse’s arrest. One of the files discovered was a video downloaded to Crouse’s church computer that was accessed by a user logged into the computer’s “Pastor” account, the affidavit said.
Crouse’s federal charge stemmed from violating U.S. law pertaining to obtaining child pornography across state or international lines.
During a subsequent interview with investigators, Crouse acknowledged knowing what child pornography was, as well as obtaining and viewing it, the affidavit said.
The affidavit also said that Crouse “admitted to viewing child pornography at the church while multi-tasking and completing church business on his church computer.”
Two church officers told investigators that they had not seen the inside of Crouse’s office “for months” prior to the execution of the search warrants. They also said Crouse had started locking his office whenever he left, even just to go to the bathroom.
Crouse was terminated from his position as pastor of New Vision Baptist Fellowship following his arrest.
The initial tip against Crouse came in April 2023 when the cloud storage service Dropbox informed the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that one of its users was in possession of child pornography. The tip included Crouse’s name, email address and several IP addresses that were used to access the Dropbox account.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shared the tip with the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, which worked with the Caldwell County Sheriff’s Office to begin investigating Crouse and obtain warrants to search his home and the church he pastored.
Currently Crouse is being held in the Caldwell County Detention Center in Lenoir, N.C., while awaiting a court appearance.
