An “American Idol” contestant who went viral after he shared a kiss with Katy Perry during his audition was arrested on child pornography charges Friday afternoon in Oklahoma.
Benjamin Glaze, 26, was arrested by the Tulsa Police Department following a six-month investigation, according to a TPD Facebook post.
The department’s Sexual Predator/Digital Evidence Recovery Unit obtained a search warrant for his home, where the officers recovered a phone including more than 700 pieces of child sexual abuse material, cops said. Glaze was arrested the same day the warrant was issued.
Glaze was on “American Idol” in 2018, where he performed “Levels” for judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. In a now-viral moment he admitted he had never been in a relationship or kissed a girl, which prompted Perry to smooch the 19-year-old on the lips.
“I have never been in a relationship, and I can’t kiss a girl without being in a relationship,” he had said before Perry kissed him.
He also highlighted his job working as a cashier for the judges, which he said he loved because, “sometimes there’s cute girls and they’re not going anywhere without saying hi.”
The move by Perry blew up online, sparking backlash for allegedly assaulting the teenager. Others, including her fellow judges, defended her online, citing her employment on the show requiring her to make the show more interesting.
“It’s unfortunate that stuff like that turns into a story that big,” Bryan told “The Morning Show” in 2018.
“I watched an actual interview where Ben, the kid that was involved, said that he was cool with everything. I gotta back Katy on that.”
Glaze told the New York Times following his audition that if it were up to him, he would’ve said no so that his first kiss could “be special.”
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