The former president of an evangelical get-out-the-vote nonprofit was charged Monday with multiple counts of possession of child sexual abuse material. Jason Yates, 55, the former CEO of My Faith Votes , was charged with eight counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors under the age of 14. The charges come after a witness provided Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension agents in July with a hard drive that belonged to Yates and contained suspected child sexual abuse material, according to a probable cause statement obtained by HuffPost.
Each charge noted that Yates has a prior conviction and is a registered predatory offender. An attorney representing Yates declined to comment on Tuesday. According to the probable cause statement, the witness said they came into possession of the hard drive after a relative of Yates accidentally discovered it in his office.
When the relative put the hard drive into their computer, they discovered a “collection” of child sexual abuse material, the probable cause statement said. According to the statement, the contents of the hard drive included more than 100 sexually explicit images of children. The images allegedly showed children ranging in age from 5 to 11, and one file allegedly included a video approximately 17 minutes long.
Yates served for years as CEO and president of My Faith Votes, which describes itself as a nonpartisan group advocating for Christian citizens to vote in every election. The Texas-based group ha.