Crime & Safety
Police Arrest WELS Communications Director for Child Porn
Waukesha Police Department serves a search warrant after being alerted by FBI about distribution of child pornography. Joel Hochmuth will appear in court for a bail hearing Thursday afternoon.
The communications director for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of possessing or distributing child pornography at his Waukesha home, according to a news release from the
Joel W. Hochmuth, 52, was arrested in the 1900 block of Hunter Court after detectives were alerted by the FBI Cyber Crimes Task Force “that a person at this residence was involved in the distribution of child pornography,” the release states.
Hochmuth remains in police custody and police plan to transport him to the Waukesha County Jail to go through intake court on Thursday.
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Detectives located numerous images of child pornography, according to the news release.
“We are limited on the information we can provide at this time,” the release from Sgt. Jerry Habanek states.
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Hochmuth's LinkedIn page says that prior to working for WELS, Hockmuth was a professor at Kennesaw State and a CNN correspondant for 15 years.
Here's video of Hochmuth's work in his role as WELS communications director.
Hochmuth made national news earlier this year as a spokesman for WELS when Congresswoman Michele Bachmann left her WELS church just before announcing she was running for president.
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