St. Paul faith-based nonprofit leader charged with possessing child pornography
The executive director of a St. Paul faith-based nonprofit that trains church clergy on addiction issues has been arrested and charged with possessing child pornography at his Roseville home.
Investigators executed a search warrant at the home of 67-year-old Drew Michael Brooks in October and found child sexual abuse material that had been printed and on his computer, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court charging him with 12 counts of possessing child pornography.
As executive director of Faith Partners, Brooks provides 'leadership, administration and training' to 'people of faith to serve with an informed, compassionate response to the risk and prevalence of addiction,' according to its website.
Faith Partners' work is used in nearly 1,000 congregations in 29 states from 23 different religious practices, according to Brooks' online bio. He's been with the nonprofit since 1999, and was its program manager for 11 years.
Brooks was released from the Ramsey County jail on Wednesday without having to pay a bond, court records show. His first court appearance is scheduled for June 10. An attorney is not listed in his court file, and he did not return a message Thursday seeking comment on the charges.
According to the criminal complaint, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a cyber tip report from Microsoft on Dec. 25, 2022, that someone had accessed child sexual abuse material the day before. Other cyber tips involving the same Roseville address were received between October 2023 and April 2024.
Officers executed the search warrant at the home on Oct. 29, 2024, and detained Brooks and his wife. Officers found documents in the name of Faith Partners and a folder in a laptop bag containing printed images of child pornography.
Brooks' wife told police she that knew her husband viewed pornography, but was not aware it was child pornography, the complaint says. She acknowledged Brooks' role with the nonprofit, and said there are flash drives and computers in the home that he uses for work.
Brooks agreed to speak with officers, who had placed the folder on the interview table. He said he knew the folder contained images of children and that some were 'sexual,' the complaint says. Brooks said he forgot the folder existed.
Brooks claimed he was sexually abused when he was child and later turned to drugs and alcohol. He said he was recovering by age 22, then started going to meetings for sex addiction.
Brooks said he was not initially interested in child pornography, but he 'found it was only a click away,' the complaint states. He admitted he had looked at child pornography that week and that it was on a laptop in his home. Brooks voluntarily provided passwords to his devices and an open browser showed a webpage with child pornography.
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Brooks said he is 'not necessarily' sexually attracted to children and he 'described an attraction/repulsion dynamic along with novelty (that) makes him seek the material out,' the complaint states.
The 36 printed images found in the folder were submitted to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which returned a report that 21 images contained child victims previously identified by law enforcement, the complaint says.
Brooks, who has a bachelor's degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Minnesota-Duluth, has a work history that includes six years as a health promotion specialist at Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation in Center City and seven years as a youth health promotion specialist for the city of Bloomington, according to his LinkedIn profile.
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