ELLSWORTH, Maine — Police are investigating a former Tremont pastor for alleged possession of child pornography, according to a search warrant on file at Hancock County Unified Criminal Court.
The Rev. Wayne Buchanan resigned as pastor of Tremont Congregational Church in January, after detectives with the Maine State Police Computer Crimes unit identified him as a suspect in sharing child pornography images online. Buchanan, who also was on the faculty at Grace Evangelical College and Seminary in Bangor, resigned from his position there the same month.
Buchanan is no longer affiliated with either the Tremont church on Mount Desert Island or the seminary.
According to a court affidavit written by Detective David Armstrong of the Maine State Police, investigators with the computer crimes unit were conducting online searches of a peer-to-peer computer network in late December 2015 when they found files known to law enforcement as being connected with child pornography.
Police identified a specific Internet Protocol address associated with these files and traced that identifying number to Buchanan’s home in Southwest Harbor, according to the affidavit. The account associated with the IP address has been active for the past seven years, the document indicated.
Seized in the subsequent search of Buchanan’s home, executed on Jan. 6, were a laptop, two iPads, four thumb drives and a memory card, court documents indicate. Aside from one sexually explicit image, the documents do not indicate what evidence police may have found as a result of their investigation of Buchanan.
The are no other documents on file at the court clerk’s office that would indicate that charges formally have been filed against Buchanan.
Voicemail messages left Thursday afternoon with officials at the state Attorney General’s office and the Hancock County District Attorney’s office were not immediately returned.
