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http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040603/NEWS01/406030381/1002June 3, 2004
Ex-radio exec to do time for child porn
Tupelo man given 15 years on two counts of producing pornography
By Jerry Mitchell
jmitchell@clarionledger.com
A former official at American Family Radio, which regularly warns listeners about the dangers of pornography, must serve 15 years in prison for producing child pornography.
In federal court in Aberdeen Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson sentenced Kerry Dwayne Stevens, 47, of Tupelo, who pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child pornography. A law passed by Congress last year requires a mandatory 15-year sentence for creating child pornography.
"It's tragic for everybody involved," said the Rev. Donald Wildmon, founder and executive director of the Tupelo-based American Family Association, which started the fast-growing Christian radio network. "It's one of those things you wish had never happened. His family was devastated."
American Family Radio — with more than 200 stations in 35 states — fired Stevens, who produced a children's show for the network as director of children's news, but Wildmon said the association has helped to support the family financially through the tragedy.
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