Benjamin Glaze of ‘American Idol’ arrested for child pornography

Benjamin Glaze, a 26-year-old former American Idol participant, has been arrested in Oklahoma for possession of child pornography.

According to a recent Facebook post from the Tulsa Police Department, Glaze was arrested and booked into the Tulsa County Jail on Oct. 18 after authorities found more than 700 images and videos of child sexual abuse material on his smartphone. The department was first notified of the singer’s alleged possession of the materials in April, when they received “information regarding criminal activity” about Glaze, after which the Sexual Predator/Digital Evidence Recovery Unit obtained a search warrant for his home . His phone was recovered during the search.

Billboard could not reach Glaze for comment.

The message from the Tulsa Police Department also includes a photo of Glaze that appears to have been taken at the station. In the photo, he stares blankly at the camera while wearing a Walmart uniform shirt.

Although Glaze failed his audition American Idol in 2018, he made headlines during the show’s 16th season when Katy Perry – one of the judges at the time – kissed him on the lips before he performed. After the then-19-year-old pop star contestant and co-judges Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan revealed that he hadn’t had his first kiss yet, Perry encouraged him to give her a peck on the cheek; However, when he got close to her face, she turned around at the last moment to sneak a hug around his mouth.

“Katy!” he exclaimed at the time after falling to the ground. “You didn’t!”

Later Glaze said The New York Times that while he didn’t feel sexually harassed, he felt “a little” uncomfortable at the time. “Would I have done it if she had said, ‘Do you want to kiss me?’ No, I would have said no,” he told the publication. “I know a lot of guys would say, ‘Oh well!’ But for me, I grew up in a conservative family and I immediately felt uncomfortable. I wanted my first kiss to be special.”

Yet Glaze also said at the time that he and his friends in Oklahoma agreed that the kiss “didn’t really count.” “It was lip contact versus a romantic situation with someone you care about,” he added. “That’s what a real first kiss is.”