A local chaplain and part-time pastor at C3 Church Vancouver is accused of possessing child pornography.
Randolph B. Warneke, 66, appeared Friday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree possessing depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
According to its website, Warneke is a chaplain, assistant director of operations and board member for Community Military Appreciation Committee, a civic nonprofit group that holds community events and recognizes and supports military families.
He is an at-large pastor for C3 Church and serves as chaplain for Pointman Ministry and Veterans Victory Chapel. Warneke also serves as a chaplain and board member for the Korean War Veterans Association; vice chair and board member for Clark County Veterans Advisory Board; and a board member for CDM Services, according to CMAC’s website.
Warneke allegedly sent an image via email in his Google account July 12, and Google identified it as child pornography and disabled his account. The image depicted two children, who appeared to be younger than 10, engaged in sexual acts, a probable cause affidavit states.
The following day, Google contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about the image and provided Warneke’s account information. The tip was later assigned to the Vancouver Police Department’s Digital Evidence Cybercrime Unit, court records show.
Investigators traced the account information back to Warneke and his residence, according to the affidavit. Warneke was reportedly a suspect in a previous criminal case that is currently suspended, court documents state.
Police contacted Warneke on Thursday following a traffic stop in his neighborhood. They served a search warrant at his residence and on his vehicle and person.
In an interview, Warneke told police his email account was hacked and that he kept getting pop-ups to websites with “crap” on them that he didn’t intend to access. He stopped using the account after that, he said, and didn’t realize Google had disabled it, the affidavit said.
Detectives confronted Warneke about some of the websites he had visited and search terms he used, including “lust teens.” He initially denied using that search term and denied looking at any kind of pornography, according to court records. Warneke said he remembered seeing the child pornography image in his account but deleted it. He denied putting it there, court documents state.
Warneke later admitted to using his cellphone to view pornography, search certain terms and click on images because he was “curious.” He admitted to seeing the child pornography image on a web page before it was in his email account. However, he continued to deny that he saved the image to his phone or laptop’s hard drive, the affidavit shows.
Investigators said they found additional web history that showed Warneke had searched for child pornography, court records said.
Senior Deputy Prosecutor Jeannie Bryant said Friday that police also reported finding 30 deleted images of suspected child pornography on a thumb drive. It’s possible additional charges will be filed, she said.
Judge Bernard Veljacic appointed Vancouver attorney Diane Sweet to represent Warneke and set his bail at $65,000. He is not to have contact with children.
Warneke will be arraigned later this month.
