NEW: Bailey's Beach Tennis Instructor Arrested on Child Porn Charges

NEW: Bailey's Beach Tennis Instructor Arrested on Child Porn Charges

A Newport youth tennis instructor was arrested by the Rhode Island State Police on child pornography charges, announced Colonel James Manni.

Thomas Gallagher, 75, was charged with possession of child pornography after the Rhode Island Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force obtained an arrest warrant based on evidence obtained during an ICAC investigation.

Gallagher was arraigned at Second Division District Court and released on $50,000 personal recognizance with special bail conditions of no internet access and no contact with minors.

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The Investigation

For approximately the past fifteen years, Gallagher has been employed as a tennis instructor at the Spouting Rock Beach Association, also known as Bailey’s Beach Club.

From 1997 until 2004, Gallagher was a substitute teacher and part-time youth tennis coach at Saint Michael’s Country Day School in Newport.

Gallagher was previously employed as a youth tennis coach for the Newport Recreation Department.

The investigation is still ongoing. 

Bailey's Beach club is one of the most exclusive clubs in America.

As GoLocal previously reported about Bailey's Beach Club:

"...what few Rhode Islanders or Americans may know about the outspoken Senator [Sheldon Whitehouse] is that he spends his summer vacation days as a member of the wildly exclusive - and white - Spouting Rock Beach Association (SRBA) or better known as Bailey’s Beach Club. 

Located on Newport’s famous Ocean’s Drive, the club has had notably wealthy members including the Vanderbilt and Astor families. And while being the playground to some of America's richest families, SRBA's tax status is a non-profit. 

African-American journalist Adam Clayton Powell III, the former son-in-law of Eileen Slocum, the grand dame of GOP Newport politics before passing away in 2008, was known to visit the club by lieu of family ties, but did not appear to have a membership.  Clayton Powell III is the son of the late New York Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, Jr.