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	Doctor Booked with Child Porn By Jeff Adelson The Times-Picayune April 10, 2008 http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2008/04/doctor_booked_with_child_porn.html St. Tammany Parish deputies say they have discovered at least 107 sexually explicit pictures of children on the computer of a retired Covington psychiatrist who has been honored for his work with health care organizations and is affiliated with a group aimed at counseling victims of sexual abuse. Dr. Steve Taylor, 78, 420 First Ave. East, Covington, was booked Wednesday with 107 counts of possessing pornography involving juveniles. State law defines juveniles as children younger than 17 years old. Deputies began investigating Taylor after a tip that child pornography had been downloaded on his computer, St. Tammany Sheriff Jack Strain said. The sheriff declined to say where the tip originated. Based on the images uncovered so far, Strain said it appears all the images were downloaded from Web sites and do not show local youths. "It appears at this point in the investigation that all those images were downloaded from the outside Net," he said. "There's no indication that he was photographing young people locally or those involved with his practice." The investigation is ongoing, and Taylor has been cooperating with deputies, he said. Taylor is a well-known psychiatrist on the north shore. He serves on the St. Tammany Parish Hospital's Ethics Board, has assisted in counseling residents after Hurricane Katrina and runs a support group for survivors of suicide. He also is affiliated with the Louisiana chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests. Taylor was present at the first meeting of the organization in Metairie in 2003. He also accompanied members of the organization to Baton Rouge when they pressed the Legislature to require clergy to report suspicions of abuse. After that hearing, he told The Times-Picayune the right of clergy to keep confessions private did not trump the importance of discovering potential cases of abuse. "The privilege is not as important as helping the next child," he said. "The cycle has to be broken." Investigators seized Taylor's home computer earlier this month and discovered the images. Taylor was arrested Wednesday after police conducted a full search of his home and office at 102 Highland Park Plaza in Covington, Strain said. Strain declined to elaborate on what kind of images were found on Taylor's computer. However, he said his investigators typically only seek charges for pictures that "obviously" portray a juvenile, rather than potentially a young-looking adult, in order to avoid problems with prosecution. "Believe me, though it is sickening to look at these things, if one were to look at any of the images in question in the cases that my agency is dealing with, there is no question about the person being a child," Strain said. Taylor is being held in St. Tammany Parish Jail in Covington on a $100,000 bond. Taylor was also scheduled to receive an "Angels Among Us" award from the Hospice Foundation of the South at a banquet later this month. Kathy Hayward, the chairwoman of the awards banquet, said Thursday the event has been canceled. Hayward said Taylor's arrest came as a shock to her and her organization. "It's an unfortunate, unfortunate happening," she said. "We're devastated by the allegations. Our heart goes out to these families." The investigation into Taylor's activities comes amid a rash of arrests on child sexual abuse allegations in St. Tammany Parish in recent months. In addition to cases of child pornography and other crimes, two men in St. Tammany Parish Jail are awaiting trial on capital charges of aggravated rape of a juvenile. "I honestly believe this isn't new," Strain said. "I know it's shocking every time. Every time it happens, it shocks the senses of our residents. But the fact is that probably since the dawn of time people have been exploiting children, and I don't think this is something unique to our parish." Jeff Adelson can be reached at jadelson@timespicayune.com
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