COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A former pediatric nurse practitioner has admitted to distributing child pornography after investigators discovered thousands of videos and images of suspected child pornography on electronic devices at his home.

William Clinton Storey of Preston pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of distributing child pornography, federal prosecutors said in a news release.

“William Storey will spend a significant period of time in prison for his role in distributing large amounts of the most depraved depictions of child sexual abuse online — a criminal act made even more disturbing knowing he was a pediatric nurse practitioner at the time of his crimes,” Acting U.S. Attorney Peter Leary said.

After the Snapchat messaging app detected that a user had uploaded five files of suspected child pornography in November 2019, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation traced the IP address to Storey, according to court documents. Agents executed a search warrant at his house in February 2020 and seized seven electronic devices.

A forensic examination revealed about 6,000 videos and 24,000 images of suspected child pornography, prosecutors said. That included images of babies, toddlers, children engaged in bondage, and prepubescent children being sexually abused by men, prosecutors said.

Storey, 41, is set to be sentenced Aug. 17. He faces a minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years, as well as a fine of up to $250,000. Upon release, he will be subject to supervision for at least five years and possibly for the rest of his life and will be required to register as a sex offender.

STOCKBRIDGE, Ga. (AP) — A suburban Atlanta barbecue restaurant owner will get $1.7 million to settle a federal lawsuit claiming he was harassed by government officials and employees.

The city of Stockbridge’s insurer will pay the money to Arick Whitson, owner of Georgia Championship Barbeque Co. Whitson’s lawyers will get $534,000 from the total amount, according to terms obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The city is not admitting wrongdoing as part of the process and said it is settling to avoid “a protracted legal process.”

A judge approved the settlement Tuesday.

The 2017 lawsuit accused Stockbridge City Councilman Elton Alexander of repeatedly retaliating against Whitson’s restaurant when Whitson declined to give Alexander a free meal.

The suit said the dispute began in May 2016 when Alexander visited the restaurant and asked Whitson if he wanted to do “business with the city.” Whitson replied that he did and Alexander ordered $60 worth of food.

When Alexander was asked to pay, the councilmember said, “I thought you wanted to do business with the city?” Alexander then left without paying.

Whitson said code enforcement officials began visiting frequently and that he had trouble getting a liquor license or a sign permit.

The owner also said Alexander falsely accused him of being a sex offender Whitson filed an ethics complaint against Alexander in January 2017, which he said only intensified Alexander’s attacks.

Alexander denied the claims and wrote in an email to the newspaper that he did not agree with the city’s insurer’s decision to settle.

“This is a business decision by the insurance company to settle this lawsuit in its entirety and to release the City of Stockbridge and Elton Alexander from all claims,” he wrote. “Mr. Alexander does not support the settlement and does not have the authority to override the insurance company’s decision to settle this lawsuit.

Divisions over race, politics, gender and LGBTQ issues are roiling America’s largest Protestant denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, ahead of a meeting of its executive committee next week.

On the agenda are two items reflecting those divisions: A recommendation that a church in Kennesaw, Georgia, be ousted from the SBC because it accepted LGBTQ people into its congregation, contravening Southern Baptist doctrine; and a report by an executive committee task force criticizing the widely respected leader of the SBC’s public policy arm, the Rev. Russell Moore. Among the grievances against Moore: His outspoken criticism of Donald Trump during Trump’s 2016 election campaign and his presidency.

Jim Conrad, the pastor of Towne View Baptist Church in Kennesaw, said he’s at peace with the likelihood that his church will be “disfellowshipped” by the executive committee during its meeting Monday and Tuesday.

But Conrad sees broader challenges for the SBC as its stances on various sensitive issues are questioned from inside and outside.

“The problem the SBC is facing right now is this: In order to work with them, you’ve got to be in lockstep agreement with them on every point. Nine out of 10 won’t get you by,” Conrad said. “That’s just a shame. They’re going to limit themselves in terms of who’s able to work them.”

Some of the most volatile topics facing the SBC aren’t on the executive committee agenda but have fueled passionate blog posts and social media exchanges in recent weeks. Among the issues:

— Some Black pastors have left the SBC and others are voicing their dismay over pronouncements by the SBC’s six seminary presidents — all of them white — restricting how the subject of systemic racism can be taught at their schools.

— Several prominent SBC conservatives, citing church doctrine that bars women from being pastors, have questioned why the denomination’s North American Mission Board has supported a few churches where women hold titles such as children’s pastor and teaching pastor. The board says it seeks to persuade such churches to change those titles.

— The leadership continues to draw criticism from victims of church-related sexual abuse over promises made in 2019 to combat that problem. Activists say inquiries related to sex abuse should be handled by independent experts, not by the SBC’s credentials committee.

Moore has been president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, or ERLC, since 2013. Though staunchly conservative on issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, he has gained an audience outside the SBC with his speeches and writings, including criticism of Trump, condemnation of Christian Nationalism and support for a more welcoming immigration policy.

After the Jan. 6 storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, Moore wrote on his blog, “This week we watched an insurrection of domestic terrorists, incited and fomented by the President of the United States.” If he were a member of Congress, Moore wrote, he would vote to remove Trump from office even if it cost him his seat.

The task force’s report on Moore doesn’t demand his ouster but urges him and other ERLC leaders to refrain from opposing specific candidates for political office and to limit their public comments to positions already established in SBC doctrine and resolutions.

The Rev. Mike Stone, the task force chairman, said the ERLC under Moore’s leadership has been a “significant source of division” jeopardizing contributions to the SBC from its 47,000 affiliated churches.

Moore, who has declined public comment on the report, is likely to retain his post, at least for the short term.

Conrad, however, expects his church to be ousted, based on a letter he received Feb. 8 from the credentials committee asserting that Towne View Baptist “is not in friendly cooperation” with the SBC.

Towne View began welcoming LGBTQ worshippers in October 2019 after a same-sex couple with three adopted children asked Conrad if they could attend, a decision he defends as the right thing to do.

“The alternative would have been to say, ‘We’re probably not ready for this,’ but I couldn’t do that,” said Conrad, pastor there since 1994.

Conrad has the option of appealing an expulsion, but he’s making plans to affiliate at least temporarily with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which allows its churches to set their own policies regarding LGBTQ inclusion.

Conrad says about 30% of his congregation — which now numbers about 125 — left his church over the issue, forcing some budget cutbacks, including a pay cut for Conrad.

“But we have had overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community,” he said. “Letters, emails, Facebook messages, phone calls — people telling their own story of rejection by their church and how grateful they’d be to find a place where they’re welcome.”

The most recent disfellowship of an SBC church occurred a year ago when the executive committee ousted Ranchland Heights Baptist Church of Midland, Texas, because it employed a registered sex offender as pastor.

In 2019 the SBC leadership pledged strong action on sex abuse after news reports that hundreds of clergy and staff had been accused of misconduct over the previous 20 years. But critics remain dissatisfied.

Susan Codone, a professor who directs the Center for Teaching & Learning at Mercer University, was at the SBC’s national meeting in 2109 and shared her story of being abused as a teenager by the youth minister and pastor at her Southern Baptist church in Alabama. She now says the SBC’s credentials committee has failed in its response to allegations of abuse by pastors and staff.

“The chair of the committee, Mike Lawson, told me he is often worried about angering pastors with potential decisions,” Codone said via email. “His reversal of victimhood is unacceptable since the committee members are not the victims of this bureaucracy — those filing the reports are the real victims.”

Lawson, in comments also relayed by email, said many SBC churches were implementing anti-abuse policies, including staff training and victim-support programs,

“We know that in some cases, despite our best intentions or desires, we are unable to uncover all the answers, heal the hurts of those who’ve suffered unspeakable harm, or restore the dignity taken by those in trusted positions,” he wrote.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support from the Lilly Endowment through The Conversation U.S. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — During a Pennsylvania court hearing this week on one of the scores of election lawsuits brought by President Donald Trump, a judge asked a campaign lawyer whether he had found any signs of fraud found among the 592 ballots challenged.

The answer was no.

“Accusing people of fraud is a pretty big step,” said the lawyer, Jonathan Goldstein. “We’re all just trying to get an election done.”

Trump has not been so cautious, insisting without evidence that the election was stolen from him even when election officials nationwide from both parties say there has been no conspiracy.

On Wednesday, Trump took aim at Philadelphia, the Democratic stronghold that helped push President-elect Joe Biden over the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the race. The president accused a local Republican election official Al Schmidt, of ignoring “a mountain of corruption & dishonesty.” Twitter added a label that said the election fraud claim is disputed.

Trump loyalists have filed at least 15 legal challenges in Pennsylvania alone in an effort to reclaim the state’s 20 electoral votes. There is action, too, in Georgia, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan.

In court, his lawyers must walk a precarious line between advocating for their client and upholding their professional oath.

Legal ethicists and pro-democracy activists have questioned the participation of lawyers in this quest, as Trump clings to power and President-elect Joe Biden rolls out his agenda.

“This may be an attempt to appease the ego in chief, but there are real world consequences for real people that come out of that,” said Loyola Law School professor Justin Levitt, a former Justice Department elections official. “The attempt to soothe the president’s ego is not a victimless crime.”

Schmidt told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that his office has received death threats simply for counting votes.

“From the inside looking out, it feels all very deranged,” Schmidt said in an interview that aired Sunday. “Counting votes cast on or before Election Day by eligible voters is not corruption. It is not cheating. It is democracy.”

Untold voters, however, are accepting Trump’s claim about a rigged election and are donating to his legal fund.

A law firm involved in the election suits, Ohio-based Porter Wright Morris & Arthur, appeared to take down its Twitter feed Tuesday after it was inundated with attacks. The firm did not return messages seeking comment.

A second firm, Jones Day, said it was representing not the Trump campaign but the Pennsylvania GOP, in litigation before the U.S. Supreme Court over the three-day extension to accept mail-in ballots.

Nationally, the strategy is being run by Trump allies such as Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney; political operative David Bossie, who is not an attorney; and Jay Sekulow, a lead lawyer during the president’s impeachment trial this year. Bossie recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Election law expert Rick Hasen said he would expect to see top-drawer Supreme Court litigators involved, such as two former solicitors general, Paul Clement or Theodore Olson, if Trump had a strong case.

“There are certain names of elite lawyers that signal to the Supreme Court that something is serious,” said Hasen, a professor at the University of California, Irvine. Instead, “the campaign announced that it was putting Rudy Giuliani and David Bossie in charge.”

The low point of the effort undoubtedly came Saturday, when Giuliani held a news conference outside Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia just after the race was called for Biden. Standing in the shadow of a sex shop and a crematorium, just down the road from a state prison, Giuliani called a disgruntled poll watcher to the microphone to discuss the “shenanigans” in the city.

Political observers tuning in from nearby Trenton, New Jersey, immediately recognized the man as a convicted sex offender and perennial candidate for office.

In another head-scratching moment, as the campaign tried to stop the vote count in Philadelphia last week, a judge tried to get to the bottom of a Republican complaint over observer access in the room where election workers were processing mail-in ballots.

“I am asking you as a member of the bar of this court, are people representing the Donald J. Trump for president (campaign) … in that room?” U.S. District Judge Paul S. Diamond asked.

“There’s a nonzero number of people in the room,” campaign lawyer Jerome Marcus replied.

Diamond made the two sides forge an agreement and threatened to charge them with contempt if they didn’t keep the peace.

Some of the suits filed on Trump’s behalf appear to be hastily thrown together, with spelling errors (“ballet” for “ballot”), procedural mistakes and little to back up their claims. Judge have been skeptical.

In Michigan, Judge Cynthia Stephens dismissed one filing as “inadmissible hearsay within hearsay.” When Trump’s lawyers appealed, the next court kicked the filing back as “defective.”

The campaign has so far scored just one small victory, allowing their observers to stand a little closer to election workers processing the mail-in ballots in Philadelphia.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., insists the president is “100% within his rights” to look into fraud allegations and pursue his legal options. Attorney General William Barr has authorized the Justice Department to investigate “clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities.”

Either way, experts doubt the suits can reverse the outcome in a single state, let alone the election. Trump aides and allies have privately admitted as much, suggesting the challenges are designed more to stoke his base.

AMERICUS, Ga. (AP) — A county inmate was recaptured Tuesday in southwest Georgia after escaping Sunday through the jail fence.

Sumter County Chief Deputy Eric Bryant told WALB-TV that Charlie Lester was found in an abandoned house in Americus.

Lester escaped from the Sumter County jail, where he was being held on charges including rape, sodomy, aggravated sodomy, enticing a child and other sex offenses. He escaped, while outside for recreation, through multiple layers of fencing. Bryant said Lester may have broken part of the fence, but said the barrier has been repaired and that additional reinforced fencing may be added.

Officials arrested two other people Tuesday who they believe helped Lester escape or hide, Bryant said. Their names were not released and no charges were announced.

Lester will face additional charges of escape, Bryant said.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — Jail officials say they were unaware that a Black Georgia inmate may have harbored racial resentment before they put him in a cell with a white man that he’s accused of beating to death.

Muscogee County Sheriff Donna Tompkins tells local news outlets that her staff didn’t know that Jayvon Hatchett allegedly told police that he was looking for a white man to kill after he was arrested for stabbing an employee of a Columbus auto parts store on Aug. 25. A police report listed the stabbing as an “anti-white” bias incident, but Tompkins said the sheriff’s office wasn’t given the report or informed of the threat.

“No one in my agency was aware when they classified him, when they put him where they put him,” Tompkins said. “No one was aware of a specific threat to any group, nor did he indicate any to our security, medical or mental health staff.”

Hatchett shared a cell with white inmate Eddie Nelson Jr. from Aug. 28 through Sept. 5. A deputy reported seeing Hatchett atop Nelson in the early morning hours of Sept. 5, local news outlets report. Tompkins said that as deputies pulled Hatchett from Nelson, he said Nelson had put a hair in Hatchett’s sandwich. Nelson died of what the Muscogee County coroner ruled was blunt force trauma.

“Somebody made a decision to put these two inmates in a cell together and that never should have happened. Whoever did it had to have known,” said Craig Jones, a lawyer representing Nelson’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit.

He said multiple deputies were in the courtroom during Hatchett’s preliminary hearing where officers testified Hatchett told them he stabbed the store clerk because he is white.

“You can’t tell me those officers in court didn’t go back to the jail and tell their supervisor, and their supervisor didn’t tell their supervisor,” Jones told WTVM-TV. “I think it was probably a total breakdown of communications, but this is a big enough deal that if you’re in charge of the jail, if you’re in charge of the sheriff’s department, you have to know about this.”

Tompkins said she ordered an internal investigation into what knowledge deputies had of the charges against Hatchett and how they decided to house him with Nelson. But she said sees no reason to call in the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Nelson was in jail for a probation violation because he had failed to register as a sex offender.

Hatchett is charged with murder in Nelson’s death. The 19-year-old has pleaded not guilty, but officials say he has confessed and Tompkins notes the deputy saw what happened. Hatchett is charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon during a crime in the auto parts store stabbing.

Tompkins said both cellmates had seen the jail’s mental health provider.

COLUMBUS, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia county inmate was found beaten to death in his cell, authorities said.

Muscogee County Jail inmate Eddie Nelson Jr., 39, was pronounced dead Saturday morning, news outlets reported.

Sheriff Donna Tompkins said inmate Jayvon Hatchett, 19, is suspected in the beating death, which is being investigated. Additional details weren’t immediately released.

Hatchett was charged with aggravated assault and possession of a weapon on Aug. 25, accused of stabbing an AutoZone employee because of his race. Hatchett, who is Black, told Columbus police that he “felt the need to find a white male to kill” after watching videos of police brutality, Police Sgt. R.S. Mills said.

Nelson, a white man, was booked on Aug. 26 and charged with probation violation and failure to register as a sex offender, according to jail records.

It’s unclear whether Hatchett had an attorney who could comment on his behalf.