Authorities in the east Texas town of Marshall say a local cop / pastor and his wife, an assistant clerk in the county clerk's office, committed indecency with a child by contact.

Huey Edwards "Eddie" Nichols Jr., 49, and his wife Sharon Nichols, 33, were arrested Friday. Police there say the arrest came about after the victim -- a student at Marshall's Texas State Technical College -- told her school counselor about the contact. The counselor told campus cops, who took the case in turn to the Harrison County Sheriff's Department, Eddie Nichols' employer for the past three-and-a-half years. Realizing their possible conflict of interest they called in the county DA's office and the Texas Rangers and other agencies.

Prior to that he had been a Marshall city cop for 13 years, not to mention the department's chaplain. He is currently listed as occupying the pulpit at Marshall's Harvest Christian Fellowship.

Part of Sharon Nichols's job at the county clerk's office is to sign marriage certificates, as one East Texas Internet commenter noted to her dismay.

Eddie Nichols is charged with two counts of indecency with a child by contact and his bond was set at $200,000. As of yesterday he was still behind bars. His wife's bond was set at half that and she is a free woman. If convicted of the second-degree felony, each could be sent to prison for two to twenty years.