Sand Mountain Reporter

“One picture was all that I could take – it was a lot of disgusting stuff,” said Boaz Police Chief Terry Davis after viewing one of more than 70 DVDs containing thousands of pornographic images.

Anthony Alan McClendon, 49, of Mount Vernon Homes, in Boaz, was arrested Tuesday on a charge of possession of obscene materials, alleged to be child pornography.

“The material,” Davis said, “was discovered on a computer alleged to have belonged to McClendon.”

Davis said, “A man doing work in the apartment complex on Thursday, June 11, was given the computer by McClendon. The man later took the computer home and, after turning it on, discovered a disc, still in the computer, containing what he believed were pornographic images of explicit sexual acts involving young children.”

Davis added, “Some of the children appeared to be as young as 2 and 3 years old.”

Alarmed at what he saw, the man took the computer to the Boaz Police Department around 7:30 p.m. Thursday.

After viewing the disc, Sgt. Michael Abercrombie believed the material involved child pornography. He secured the computer and filed an incident/offense report that led to obtaining a search warrant for McClendon’s residence.

Davis said, “At least 70 other discs containing images of children engaging in sexual acts were discovered during the search.”

Davis said, “While it appears the images were acquired from Internet Web sites, we are investigating to see if there is any other source or anyone else involved in this situation.”

He added, “Detective Gary Stanfield is cataloging the material and working with Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall and the FBI in compiling the most significant images for consideration by a grand jury. Some materials are being sent to the lab for further analysis.”

Davis said, “The part that bothers me is we don’t know for certain at this time if any of this is local in origin. We are doing everything we can to find out everything we can.”

McClendon remained under “no bond” in the Boaz City jail as of Wednesday.

The nature and number of counts McClendon might be charged with are still being discussed Davis said.

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Publisher: Ben Shurett

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