Youth pastor filmed kids bathing at Texas church, feds say. He’s going to prison

A former youth pastor convicted of planting secret cameras in the bathroom of a Texas church will spend decades behind bars, federal officials say.

Chad Rider, 49, was sentenced to 60 years in prison Tuesday, Feb. 21, nearly seven months after a jury found him guilty of producing child pornography, according to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

Evidence uncovered in the trial showed Rider and an accomplice set up recording devices “to film children while bathing at the church,” officials said in a Feb. 21 news release. Rider also filmed two children “in residential settings,” the news release states.

Rider, who was a youth leader at Denison Church of the Nazarene, filmed seven children, KXII reported.

The church has not publicly commented on the conviction and sentencing.

Rider was originally arrested in September 2020 following a joint investigation between local authorities, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Homeland Security Investigations offices.

One of the charges Rider faced stemmed from filming his neighbor’s daughter in her bathroom, according to the Herald Democrat. He also filmed a young girl who was living with his family, officials told the news outlet.

“He used his trusted roles as a church leader, care giver to at-risk teens, and as a trusted member of his community to plant secret recording devices in bathrooms and other places where children would be disrobed,” U.S. Attorney Brit Featherston said in a news release. “This shocking breach of trust was committed by an individual who had falsely sewn a firm belief of good character of himself in so many parents in his community.”

Rider’s accomplice, David Pettigrew, was sentenced to 30 years in prison in 2021. Together, they filmed the victims by “using various hidden cameras, including cameras disguised as hooks, clocks, a picture frame, a smoke detector, an AC wall adapter, charging blocks and a pen,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

The victims were between 11 and 14 years old, officials said.

Denison is about 75 miles north of Dallas.

This story was originally published February 22, 2023 at 9:45 AM with the headline "Youth pastor filmed kids bathing at Texas church, feds say. He’s going to prison."