Mascoutah Man Charged with Possession of Child Pornography

St. Clair County – Officials have reported that on Friday, May 10 at approximately 1:30 PM, Zachery Ashby of Mascoutah was taken into custody at his residence on North 2nd St. by the Attorney General’s office, with assistance provided by the Mascoutah Police Department.

Ashby has been charged with a total of 13 felony counts. These are made up of three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and ten counts of child pornography.

Pastor Rob Tevis of The First Assembly of God church in Mascoutah is the stepfather of the suspect and has received questions from the community about the situation. The following is a sermon read by Pastor Tevis to his congregation over the past weekend, in order to shed light on the situation.

“On Friday, May 10, evil was revealed in my house. I want to be clear and concise in what I am sharing with you today for the sake of my family.

“Last year in April, we took into our home Zach Ashby, my 30 year old stepson, and Angela’s biological son. Zach was diagnosed with rapidly progressing M.S. that has left him disabled. He was also going through a nasty divorce and custody battle with his ex wife. He came to us as an atheist and our hope was that he would come to Christ. He recently told us that he was close to accepting Christ as His Lord and Savior.

“On Friday, however, the police busted through our doors (the doors of the parsonage) with guns drawn searching for Zach. There was a warrant for him for 13 felony cases of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child and child pornography…

“This is vile and disgusting. This is evil at its core. We stand against these actions. We have adopted kids out of the system; and just last year I was a social worker (before I became your pastor) to fight against this kind of sin in this world. “As your pastor, I will fight to make sure that every child is protected. I had even announced that we were going to start a weekly children’s ministry in our church, but did not have enough adults to do so. We postponed starting this ministry so that we can have things in place properly. We believe every adult must be background checked and two adults must be present when we work with children. We want every child to be safe.

“We ask you pray for us. Pray for my wife … Please pray for our church as we face this evil together.

“Matthew 18:10 – See to it that you don’t despise one of these little children, because I tell you that in heaven their angels continually view the face of my Father in heaven.”

It has been ordered that Ashby is not to be released on bond. Suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.