Springfield sex offender charged with pandering child pornography

A Springfield man is accused of possessing child pornography.

Warren Lee Jr., 33, was charged in Clark County Municipal Court with two counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor or impaired person. He pleaded not guilty and his bond was set at $15,000.

Man arrested on suspicion of stealing a vehicle at gunpoint

Lee is accused of downloading child pornography on both DropBox and a Google account over the last several years, an affidavit filed with the charges says. Warren is a Tier II registered sex offender, according to the Ohio Attorney General Office, having been convicted of rape — sexual motivation in 2008.

Springfield police launched its most recent investigation on Aug. 9 when a detective was assigned a referral from the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit. The tips were passed to Springfield police by the Cuyahoga County ICAC Unit, the affidavit says, which received cyber tips from Google and Dropbox.

“Information received (said) that around June 29, 2014, Google became aware and reported that there were images/videos downloaded to (an) account which contained child pornography and child molestation,” the affidavit says. “Google reported this information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Google identified the owner of the (account) as Warren Lee Jr. This email was used before for Myspace and Pandora all of which came back to an address (in Enon).”

The Enon address was the prior known address for Lee, the affidavit says. Warren is charged under a Springfield address in the newest charges.

Springfield man convicted of touching kids accused again in new sex crime

Dropbox became aware and reported that there were 84 explicit files to another Gmail account in September of 2013, the affidavit says. Then in April 2019, Google again became aware and reported that six images — including one of an exposed 4-year-old — were uploaded into a different Google account. The affidavit says Google identified the account as belonging to Lee and provided a mobile phone number.

On Aug. 28, Lee was interviewed by Springfield Police, the affidavit says.

“During this interview, Warren Lee Jr. stated ‘this is crazy.’ He stated that people are trying to put this on him,” the affidavit says. “He didn’t initially deny that he downloaded any images or videos, not until directly asked. During the interview, Lee gave detectives his email address, which did not match the ones listed, however, he gave his cell phone number that matched the information received from the referral from ICAC.”

The affidavit says Lee is currently on parole and after the interview, he was arrested and booked into the Clark County Jail on the pandering charges. Warren appeared in court on Saturday and was listed as an inmate in the jail on Tuesday.

About the Author