MIAMI – A former youth pastor convicted of “placing a hidden camera in the girls’ bathroom” at a Christian camp in Oregon is now facing new disturbing charges ― this time in South Florida, according to a federal criminal complaint.
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Authorities said they nabbed Jacob Melvin Hart, 45, of San Juan Capistrano, California, with child sexual abuse videos at Miami International Airport after he came in on a flight from Haiti.
A federal criminal complaint states that Hart arrived at MIA on Saturday on an Eastern Air Express flight from Cap-Haïtien and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers searched his devices.
Authorities said they found 33 illicit videos in a “hidden, password-protected folder” of his iPhone showing girls as young as 10.
“Law enforcement also observed what appeared to be over approximately 160 artificial intelligence (AI) images and videos depicting nude prepubescent and minor females,” the complaint states.
Investigators said that during an interview, Hart “explained that he generates them from a website that he pays a monthly subscription for, prompting it to create videos of naked 13-year-old girls.”
Authorities said he would also use a Russian chatting app to send underage girls “stickers” in exchange for nude videos.
Hart “also disclosed that he was a youth pastor in Oregon and was arrested in 2006 for invasion of privacy for placing a hidden camera in the girls’ bathroom/shower room at a Christian camp.”
According to the La Grande Observer newspaper, the incident happened while Hart was serving as youth director at First Baptist Church in La Grande, Oregon.
The newspaper reported that, according to law enforcement, Hart admitted to placing the camera in the girls’ shower at a camp in remote Union County, Oregon.
A federal agent wrote in the complaint that she confirmed that Hart was convicted.
The complaint doesn’t state what he was doing in Haiti.
Hart was taken into custody on federal charges of transportation and possession of child pornography and taken across the county line to be held in the Broward Sheriff’s Office Main Jail on behalf of the U.S. Marshals Service.
Hart made his initial appearance in Miami federal court on Monday, court documents show, and was ordered held ahead of a pre-trial detention hearing scheduled for Thursday.
He’s now in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami, records show.