AP Man Faces Child Porn Charges

An Avon Park man remained in Highlands County Jail in lieu of $91,000 bond Thursday, arrested after he was arrested by agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and charged with having child porn on his computer.

Morris Ray Lawson, 59, of 2438 W. Greenlawn Road, was charged Wednesday with 18 counts of possession of child pornography.

On July 9, agents received information that a computer belonging to Lawson contained explicit photographs of children performing sexual acts, the report by the department stated.

Agents went to A&D Computers located at 1577 U.S. 27 N., in Avon Park, where they spoke with the owners. They told agents that at about noon on July 8, Lawson came in with an HP Pavilion laptop computer that needed repairs.

Lawson gave the owners his user name and password so they could access his hard drive, the report stated, in the event they needed to re-boot. Lawson left, as it was lunchtime, and came back at about 1:45 p.m., the report stated.

During the process, the owners backed up his files as a part of the repair procedure. While the files were being copied, the owner noticed files with the word "child."

Lawson stayed in the repair area watching the owner very closely, staying with him until the computer was repaired, the report stated. The repair took about five hours. Lawson paid cash and left with his computer, the report stated.

On July 9, the owner reported he opened the file marked "child" and discovered the picture of a young female engaged in a sexual act. He provided a special agent with a copy of the disk with Lawson's back-up files.

Agents discovered a file marked "Adult" with a subfolder with 18 photographs of female children in various poses and or sexual acts. The photos are graphically described in the report.

The computer files also included a copy of Lawson's Arkansas driver's license, the report stated.

Agents suggested the owner call Lawson and tell him he forgot to give him a copy of his back-up files. Lawson arrived and was identified by the owner. Agents followed Lawson to find out where he lived. He was later stopped during a traffic stop.

The disk was found on Lawson's front seat, the report stated.

The laptop computer was recovered from Lawson's home, the report stated.