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Former Redmond Sunday school teacher charged with possession of child pornography

A former Redmond Sunday school teacher has been charged with three felony counts of possession of child pornography, according to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

Douglas Meerdink was charged on Wednesday with three counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to charging papers, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was notified by Yahoo! that a user had uploaded over 2,000 files containing minors in explicit conduct to their service.

After an investigation, detectives with the Redmond Police Department discovered Meerdink was the owner of the Yahoo! email address.

Meerdink was arrested on Nov. 7 by a joint operation with the Redmond Police Department, Seattle Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Detectives seized Meerdink’s cellphone and, after a brief search, located additional images on the device under “Recent files.”

According to the charging document, Meerdink admitted to officers he had had issues with pornographic material for a long time, adding that he thought the police presence was excessive.

Detectives later confirmed Meerdink was an active member of a Redmond church where he was teaching Sunday school classes to second and third grade children.

The state has requested bail be set at $100,000, noting Meerdink has a previous conviction for indecent liberties in 1988 in King County, after soliciting an underage sex worker.