A Laguna Hills church is entangled in a federal child pornography case against a former employee that has triggered lawsuits alleging he gave two juvenile congregants computers equipped with software allowing him to secretly record them nude in their bathrooms.<\/p>\n
Court documents in the federal prosecution of the employee, Jacob Melvin Hart, indicate there could be more juvenile victims from Crossline Community Church. Several staff members of the church have resigned in the aftermath of the breach, according to documents.<\/p>\n
Two alleged victims \u2014 one who is now an adult identified as \u201cJane Doe\u201d and another who is 16 and identified as \u201cAC\u201d \u2014 filed separate lawsuits last week against Crossline, accusing the church of negligence, after they allegedly were recorded by the refurbished computers given to them by Hart.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits allege Crossline Community Church officials were aware Hart had been convicted in Oregon for a similar offense when they hired him in 2012 to manage the church\u2019s audiovisual and computer technology operations.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrossline knew when they hired Mr. Hart that he had a prior conviction for invasion of privacy and (had) an addiction to pornography,\u201d said the lawsuit filed Jan.15 by Jane Doe in Orange County Superior Court. \u201cCrossline allowed him to work in close proximity to children, manage audiovisual and technology operations, and provide IT assistance to church members, including Jane Doe\u2019s family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hart, according to the two lawsuits, often videotaped church events attended by families and children.<\/p>\n
Church officials did not immediately return two voicemails seeking comment.<\/p>\n
The lawsuits stem from a federal investigation into Hart, who was arrested in June 2025 at Miami International Airport while returning from a mission to Haiti. A search of his electronic devices by U.S. Customs and Border Protection found 33 videos of child sexual abuse and approximately 160 AI-generated sexual images of minors, according to the suit.<\/p>\n
Federal court documents said Hart allegedly admitted generating the material via a paid website and using a Russian messaging platform to solicit explicit images from minors. Documents in the case said he enticed the minors by sending them \u201cstickers\u201d with a monetary value.<\/p>\n
Further investigation of Hart\u2019s devices found seven videos of Jane Doe, said her lawsuit.<\/p>\n
Court documents from the investigation say Hart admitted to producing or attempting to produce sexually explicit \u201cdepictions\u201d of at least eight minors, many of whom he met through Crossline Church and had given laptops equipped with spyware.<\/p>\n
Hart has agreed to plead guilty in the federal case to one count of attempted production of child pornography and one count of transporting child pornography, which together carry a maximum prison sentence of 50 years, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Hart had previously been convicted of invasion of privacy in 2006 after installing a hidden camera in the girl\u2019s bathroom and shower at a Christian children\u2019s camp in Union County, Oregon, according to the lawsuits.<\/p>\n
Not only did Hart disclose his conviction and pornography addiction to his new bosses at Crossline Church, but prior victims contacted church leadership to warn them, to no avail, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause Mr. Hart was hired by Crossline, families, including Jane Doe\u2019s, trusted Mr. Hart and trusted him with access to their children,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n
About 2013, Jane Doe needed a new computer to start the school year. Hart offered a refurbished model, which the family accepted. It appears multiple children accepted a laptop computer from Hart, with the church\u2019s knowledge, the suit alleged.<\/p>\n
Federal investigators in 2025 determined Hart had installed software enabling Jane Doe\u2019s computer to be remotely accessed and monitored, according to the suit. The computer captured images of Jane Doe nude in the bathtub and getting in and out of the shower, the suit stated.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe recordings of Jane Doe were created during the years Mr. Hart worked for Crossline, whose decision to hire and retain Mr. Hart, despite his prior voyeurism conviction and admitted sexual addiction, enabled his access to church families and minors and directly facilitated the harm to Jane Doe,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n
Jane Doe, according to the suit, has suffered anxiety, fear of showering or changing in her own room, fear that her nude images will be shared online as well as fear of trusting church leadership.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefendants have permanently changed plaintiff\u2019s life for the worse,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n
Similar accusations were contained in a lawsuit filed by \u201cAC\u201d on Sept. 16 in Orange County Superior Court. The suit said Hart gave \u201cAC\u201d a computer in 2023 so she could help him edit videos for the church.<\/p>\n
The computer recorded \u201cAC\u201d showering and getting dressed, her suit said. Her father was a staff member in the church and resigned in July due to the church\u2019s \u201csystemic failures, lack of accountability and knowing exposure of children to a \u2026 risk of sexual exploitation,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n
At least seven other staff members also resigned, the suit said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Church\u2019s leadership, despite professing shock and heartbreak, had been explicitly warned about Hart\u2019s criminal history and potential risk to children, yet failed to take effective action to safeguard youth, including A.C.,\u201d the suit said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Laguna Hills church is entangled in a federal child pornography case against a former employee that has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":147218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,7,57655,179,723,62415,1846,100,611,1492,6163,136],"class_list":["post-147217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-child-sex-abuse","tag-community","tag-crime","tag-laguna-hills","tag-lawsuit","tag-news","tag-orange-county","tag-public-safety","tag-religion","tag-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}