Beckwith adviser was with son in September when police executed warrant in child porn case
Multiple electronics taken in Jonathan Peternel case, files discovered included videos of his parents having sex
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One of Indiana Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith’s top friends and advisers was with his son last month when police conducted a search of their home for child sex abuse material, according to a copy of the probable cause affidavit obtained by 24sight News Friday.
Nathan Peternel, 48 years old, answered the door on Sept. 10 with his son Jonathan Peternel, 24 years old, when the detective conducting the investigation conducted his search, read Jonathan Peternel his Miranda Rights and alerted the younger Peternel that he was being investigated for allegedly possessing and disseminating child pornography, the affidavit states.
Jonathan Peternel was arrested Thursday after being charged with four felony counts of child sexual abuse, stemming from what prosecutors say were more than 200 files of child sexual abuse — including gruesome videos of children likely under the age of 13 being tortured and raped by adult men — and more than 50 photos and videos of his parents nude or having sex, according to the affidavit.
Nathan Peternel, who has long been one of the lieutenant governor’s closest friends and advisers, did not return multiple calls and a text message with questions, seeking comment for this story.
Beckwith, whose office is under investigation in relation to a separate deepfake porn scandal, was not aware of Jonathan Peternel’s alleged child pornography trafficking before the news of Thursday’s arrest, a spokesman for the lieutenant governor said Friday.
Jonathan Peternel was still being held in Madison County Indiana’s jail, Friday afternoon, and had not presented a defense attorney, according to a Madison County official.
In his virtual court appearance Thursday, Jonathan Peternel pleaded not guilty and said he would be using Beckwith’s state lawyer, Devin Norrick, who is alleged to have watched a deepfake porn of a lawmaker’s wife this past spring. But Norrick told 24sight News Friday that his family’s law firm was not representing Jonathan Peternel, he did not specify whether that meant he himself would not defend him.
Police state they recovered “multiple laptops and Macbooks, iPads and tablets, various thumb drives and memory cards, cellphones that were actively used by household members and older cellphones that were being stored.”
The affidavit also includes a chat log from Jonathan Peternel’s Snapchat account in which he is alleged to have used a code word signaling he would be sharing child pornography. He is also alleged to have belonged to a chat group titled “Diddy disciples”.
The child porn case, which has quietly burned through Indiana political circles and text chains behind the scenes, strikes at the heart of a powerful network of congregations led by Pastor Nathan Peternel, Life Church, which has also served as a political staging ground for Beckwith’s stunning ascent to second-in-line to the governor.
Beckwith has routinely made national headlines for wild and shocking comments which have riled other state leaders, most recently pressuring reticent state lawmakers to redistrict the state’s congressional map at President Donald Trump’s behest.
The elder Peternel and Beckwith have been close for years and, along with their work with Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point USA religious branch, agued that congregants must actively fight the evil they see in American culture by engaging in politics.
Nathan Peternel and Beckwith have co-hosted a podcast called “Jesus, Sex and Politics” for years. But they haven’t posted a new episode since two days after the search of the Peternels’ home.
Jonathan Peternel continued to attend church with his father, Nathan, after they were alerted of the criminal investigation last month, according to one person familiar with the church, who expressed outrage that the pastor would allow his son around other families and children while knowing what he was being investigated for.
Beckwith’s state office is being investigated separately by the Marion County Prosecutor in Indianapolis — which has jurisdiction over state leaders in the capital city — for allegedly watching an AI-altered video in their statehouse office, altered to show state lawmaker’s wife seemingly topless onstage at a charity event for the state’s mental health association.
Beckwith has repeatedly denied that his staff, including Life Church member Norrick, watched the deepfake video and said that an internal investigation conducted in the days after 24sight News broke the story turned up no evidence. 24sight News filed a public records request seeking the results of the investigation two months ago but has yet to receive the results.
24sight News is not posting the entire affidavit because of the extremely graphic details of the videos allegedly obtained from Jonathan Peternel’s devices that are recounted in the document.
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While I've enjoyed your reporting, I find this story and its headline falls below the high standards of journalism you espouse, which is disappointing. While there could be some "guilt by association" aspect to this story, as Micah and Jonathan certainly know each other, Jonathan has 772 Facebook friends as of the writing of this comment. Are they by extension all guilty by association as well? You don't like Micah, nor do you share the same political and spiritual perspectives. You're allowed as an individual. As a journalist, you've allowed your personal opinion of Micah to write and publish an intellectually dishonest article with an sensationalistic headline. You're better than this. Even Rob Kendall, who detests Micah has not taken this low road, this low hanging fruit, to bash Micah, and he bashes Micah for *everything* (much of which is valid, as I'm not apologist for Micah). I'm not asking for you to take this down, and would never be like that, but you should consider if this is the type of story you want to represent your journalistic integrity, or lack thereof...