A Henrico man has been charged with attempting to take pornographic pictures of children while volunteering at a local church. And it’s not the first time his family’s name has been connected with such crimes.
Joshua P. Rinehults, 26, was served with multiple indictments by the Hanover County Sheriff’s Office Thursday, July 19 after an on-going investigation into his activities.
Rinehults, who now resides in the 7000 block of Wheeler Road, allegedly tried to take inappropriate pictures of children while volunteering at Fairmount Christian Church.
According to Sgt. Chris Whitley, Rinehults was indicted on three counts of attempting to unlawfully photograph a child. The indictments assert that in late April, Rinehults was observed by a church member speaking with three female children, all of elementary school age, and concealing a digital camera in his hands.
“He would kneel down and speak with the children and manipulate the camera in such a way as to try to photograph their undergarments,” Whitley said.
Having been contacted about the incident, authorities spent several months investigating and executed three search warrants on properties in both Hanover and Henrico.
Grand jury indictments were returned last week against Rinehults and he was arrested and released on a $5,000 secure bond by the magistrate at Pamunkey Regional Jail.
In a released statement, Sheriff V. Stuart Cook said the best layer of defense in cases involving children is proper supervision.
“In this case, the church member involved was properly supervising the children and did their part in promptly reporting the incident to the Sheriff’s Office so it could be investigated without delay,” he said. “Had they not been as involved as they were, the outcome could have been far worse.”
The name Rinehults may sound familiar to Hanoverians with regards to crimes against children, both at the state and federal level.
In 2004, the Sheriff’s Office arrested Joshua Rinehults’ father, Gary, a former employee, on counts of alleged sexual assault. The then 61-year-old was charged with child molestation stemming from incidents which occurred between September 1999 and November 2004.
The elder Rinehults worked as a Hanover County Sheriff’s Deputy from June 1999 until his resignation in December 2002.
He was charged with four sexual crimes against a minor, all felonies, which took place at his home in Mechanicsville. The victim was described as his teenage adoptive daughter, according to published reports. Gary Rinehults was ultimately sentenced to roughly 16 years in prison for the crimes.
He got in trouble a second time due to possession of child pornography, charges to which he pled guilty nearly a year ago (July 24, 2006) in federal court.
On Oct. 29, 2004, officers executed a search warrant on his home and seized his computer. A forensic examination found dozens of still and moving image files depicting child pornography
As a result of interviews conducted with the victim after Rinehult’s arrest, investigators also obtained search warrants and seized two laptop computers, 39 diskettes, an audiotape, and computer discs from the home, in a probe of child pornography allegations.
The victim in the molestation case told investigators, according to affidavits used to obtain the search warrants, that Rinehults had gotten her to invite her friends over, where he directed her to ask the juvenile girls to remove their clothing so they could be recorded.
On Feb. 21 of this year, U.S. District Judge Henry E. Hudson sentenced Gary Rinehults to 121 months in federal prison, which will run concurrently with his state sentencing.