CANTON — The former pastor of Oswegatchie First Baptist Church was charged Thursday with possessing child pornography.

Merton E. Parks, 60, of 469 Oswegatchie Trail Road, was charged with possessing a sexual performance of a child, a felony. He was arraigned in Canton Town Court and released to probation supervision. The case will be presented shortly to a St. Lawrence County grand jury. Parks is represented by attorney Gary W. Miles.

The Fine resident is accused of downloading child pornography onto a computer. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Cyber Crimes Unit, part of Operation Flicker, reportedly tracked him using his credit card to buy child pornography from several Web sites onto a computer inside the church.

"The reason I would go to these sites was because of my erectile dysfunction," the Rev. Mr. Parks wrote in an Oct. 6 statement to St. Lawrence County sheriff's investigators. "I would search for sites with girls who were nude and were of ages between 12 and 18."

Federal authorities seized his computer and external hard drive July 22 after interviewing him. A federal computer forensics lab in Virginia pulled off child porn images from his computer.

The sheriff's department was notified a few weeks ago of the images found, Sheriff Kevin M. Wells said. It's unknown how many illegal images were found on the computer.

"The reason I did this is because seeing the young girls excited me and allowed me to perform sex with my wife," the Rev. Mr. Parks wrote in the statement.

He told sheriff's investigators that he never molested any area children, but admits downloading child pornography wasn't smart.

"I realize now that viewing these underage girls to help my medical condition was not the best idea and I will not do it again," he said in concluding his statement.

The Rev. Mr. Parks resigned from his job Tuesday night after church leaders asked for him to step down.

He has served as Oswegatchie First Baptist Church's pastor for about three years and worked previously for about five years in the same position at Hermon First Baptist Church. He said Tuesday he was a teacher for about 17 years in private schools in New York and Pennsylvania before entering the clergy.

Should he plead guilty to the felony charge, state law says he has to register as a sex offender, court officials said.

The Operation Flicker investigation started in April 2006 when ICE's Cyber Crimes Center looked into a criminal organization operating several commercial child pornography Web sites. Operation Flicker has identified several thousand Americans who have subscribed to various child pornography Web sites run by the criminal group.