IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police are investigating whether an elite Iowa youth basketball coach took video recordings of nude teenagers without their knowledge after a source gave them an electronic device with child pornography, according to court documents filed Friday.

The Iowa Barnstormers of the Amateur Athletic Union announced late Thursday on Twitter that 42-year-old Greg Stephen was no longer with the traveling organization, where several prominent players have been on the roster since its founding in 2005.
Court documents show the Division of Criminal Investigation served a search warrant Thursday at Stephen’s home in Monticello in northeast Iowa.

Investigators were looking for evidence of “unlawful manufacturing of child pornography and invasion of privacy,” as well as evidence of “additional” pornographic images and victims who may have been recorded. Stephen hasn’t been charged with any crimes.

Stephen’s father, Roger, who with his son run a family-owned car dealership in Monticello, said he and his son have been advised not to comment by lawyers. But he dismissed any allegations of wrongdoing, calling them “fake news” and noting his son has run the team successfully for 12 years.

“There’s nothing to hide. It isn’t the way it looks,” Roger Stephen told The Associated Press. “My son has got many, many scholarship players for all the schools around here. The team has been a great, great deal for the community. He’s a great guy and there’s no reason for all this to happen.”

Barnstormers co-founder Jamie Johnson didn’t immediately respond to an email from AP seeking comment. Sponsored by Adidas, the program’s alumni include Iowa’s Jordan Bohannon and Connor McCaffery (son of Coach Fran McCaffery), Wisconsin star Ethan Happ and former Northern Iowa stars Jeremy Morgan and Wes Washpun. Current players include two heralded Iowa recruits, Patrick McCaffery of Iowa City and Joe Weiskamp of Muscatine.

Court documents show that agents seized several items from Greg Stephen’s home, including laptops, a hard drive, three security cameras and a backpack containing two “covert cameras.” A sworn affidavit signed by DCI special agent Ryan Kedley says the investigation started Sunday, when Monticello Police Chief Britt Smith received information from a source saying he had evidence of a criminal act.

The source told Smith that he was at Stephen’s home on Feb. 15 performing construction services when he came across what appeared to be a plug-in electronic device with video recording capabilities in a bathroom, the affidavit says. The source told Smith he was concerned about the nature of the device and had prior concerns “involving photographic images possessed by Stephen of young males.” The source took the device and turned it over to police after finding video files of young males showering, the affidavit says.

Agents inspected the device Wednesday and found more than 100 video clips, including three folders labeled with names that were redacted in the affidavit. Two of those folders included clips of “young, non-adult male individuals disrobing to the point of nudity with genitalia exposed to the camera,” Kedley wrote.
He added that the clips appeared to have been recorded in a hotel bathroom without their knowledge, and that additional footage in the device included footage of an adult male who appeared to be Stephen.