Content warning: This article describes suicide and child sexual abuse. Please take care while reading.
Christian Rewoldt, a former public school child psychologist who worked with special needs children in Mansfield, TX, was sentenced to 35 years in prison on Monday, Feb. 3, for possessing CSAM, or child sex abuse material.
Rewoldt, 66, was arrested in November 2023, according to the Mansfield Police Department, and his sentencing came after Rewoldt agreed to plead guilty to all charges. According to Mansfield PD, Rewoldt was a contract child psychologist for the Crowley Independent School District (ISD) — based in Crowley, TX, near Fort Worth in north Texas — when local authorities received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Rewoldt had downloaded explicit sexual material involving minors.
Mansfield SWAT searched Rewoldt’s home and recovered several electronic devices that authorities suspected contained CSAM, one of which was a laptop with a Crowley ISD sticker on it, according to Mansfield PD. Police have said there’s no evidence Rewoldt had inappropriate sexual contact with minors at Crowley schools.
Rewoldt passed all background checks
When Rewoldt was arrested, Crowley ISD explained that he had worked on a contract basis for several school districts in the area, including Crowley, conducting classroom observations. The district said Rewoldt signed the contract in 2021 and last worked for the district in August 2023, just months before his November arrest. The district confirmed Rewoldt passed all necessary federal and state background checks, Dallas news WFAA reported.
CSAM and trusted adults
The Rewoldt case is one of a few recent true crime stories involving an adult in a trusted position possessing or producing CSAM. In January 2024, Dr. Stephen Andrew Leedy, a palliative care doctor in Tampa Bay, Fl., was charged with producing CSAM through video chats and online conversations with at least 10 minors nationwide. Allegedly, those conversations included self-harm instruction, such as cutting, choking, and hanging.
In November 2022, a minor was found dead in front of her phone, having hanged herself in a manner consistent with Leedy’s instructions. Authorities searched her phone and found evidence she communicated with Leedy, who allegedly contacted minors anonymously using the name “maximumuncle#9112.”
Meanwhile, news of Rewoldt’s sentencing on CSAM charges in Crowley, TX., came about a year after Crowley middle school employee Christopher David Session was arrested on accusations he had an improper relationship with and sexually abused a child, according to Dallas-Fort Worth’s KDFW.
And only about 35 miles from Crowley, Brett Jarad Monroe, a former associate pastor at Heritage Baptist Church in Arlington, TX., was sentenced to nearly 25 years in prison in January this year for sexual exploitation of a child after Monroe admitted he took cell phone footage of a female minor while showering, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), part of HSI’s Operation Predator, combatting child sexual exploitation online.
“This individual’s actions were revolting, and the harm he caused to innocent children is devastating and forever lasting,” HSI Special Agent Ryan L. Spradlin said of Monroe’s sentencing. “His conduct was particularly disturbing because he was a trusted member of the community,” Spradlin added. “Protecting the most innocent members of our society is a top priority for HSI and we will never relent in our efforts to put monsters in disguise, like Monroe, where they belong – behind bars!” Spradlin said.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. A list of international crisis resources can be found here.
If you know someone suffering from sexual violence, contact RAINN or the National Sexual Abuse Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.
Published: Feb 5, 2025 02:16 pm