Original Article By Michael Gryboski
A former employee of a church in Virginia has been arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography.
Zachary Thomas Ramaglino, a former employee at Union Baptist Church in Hayes, was arrested last month and charged with 20 counts of child pornography possession.
The investigation by Virginia State Police is still ongoing, according to a report by CBS News affiliate WTKR.
Petsworth Baptist Church, the church Ramaglino attended, provided WTKR with a statement in which they explained that he was “immediately suspended … from all church activities and prohibited any unsupervised access to children on church property or at church-sponsored events.”
“Petsworth Baptist Church is fully cooperating with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation,” the church stated. “We have provided all requested information and will continue to support the investigation process in every way possible.”
“We are committed to providing pastoral care and support resources to anyone in our church who may be affected by this situation. We ask for patience as the legal process unfolds and request privacy for all families involved during this difficult time.”
For their part, Union Baptist posted a statement to Facebook last week explaining that Ramaglino had left the church in January due to “continued integrity and performance issues regarding a lack of respect for authority, failure to complete tasks, and dishonesty regarding his work.”
The church went on to say that they were unaware of the recently filed criminal charges about Ramaglino until July, when investigators visited Union Baptist and asked about the matter.
“We did everything in our power to assist the investigators and, within days of finding out about the allegations, we notified our church families for their protection and encouraged them to notify authorities of anything suspicious,” stated the church.
“Later, when it would not jeopardize the investigation, we notified the rest of the church. We thank God that no one in our church appears to be affected.”
Union Baptist went on to note that the situation showed that people who “engage in this kind of behavior can look like anyone” and “can be anywhere,” including “in churches, in schools, or in homes.”
“You cannot control what a person chooses to do with their personal life. All you can do is create safe environments where it is difficult to engage in this conduct,” the church added.
“We have done our best to be proactive and protect our church family every step of the way. We encourage every church, organization, and home to realize these people are out there. Be wise.”
Earlier this year, Union Baptist Church garnered headlines when George Thomas West, the 76-year-old chair of deacons at the congregation, was arrested in August for 16 counts of alleged unlawful filming in a public bathroom. In response to the news, the church voted to expel West from membership.
“This incident has revealed a sin incident that has been hidden and ongoing for a very long time,” Union Baptist Pastor Jared Berry told his congregation in an August sermon, as quoted by WAVY News. “The leadership and even his closest friends were unaware.”
“We will leave the legalities up to the court. On biblical grounds, we had to remove him. We want to be transparent about this. We pray for his true repentance.”
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