OH child porn suspect was employed at behavorial health agency
Published 1:30 am Friday, May 25, 2018
An Oak Harbor man accused of possessing child pornography worked as an administrator for Compass Health, according to the nonprofit organization.
Lewis Cox, 49, pleaded not guilty in Island County Superior Court Monday to four counts of possession of depictions of minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree.
The prosecutor said a condition of Cox’s release was that he not approach or communicate with minors and not go to places where they are likely to congregate.
Tom Sebastian, Compass Health CEO, said Cox was an administrator for the agency and had very limited contact with clients. Cox is no longer employed at Compass Health, which provides behavioral health care to the community.
Sebastian said the organization will do everything it can to assist law enforcement.
“At Compass Health, our highest priority is to support the safety and well-being of our clients and their families,” Sebastian said, “and to protect the sacred trust we’ve built with those we serve. We follow all state-and industry-mandated and internal hiring protocols, including comprehensive background checks, for all employees.”
Homeland Security agents investigated Cox in 2016 after Yahoo reported that suspected child porn was uploaded to the website Flickr by a user.
The IP address was traced to an Oak Harbor apartment where Cox lived, according to an agent’s report.
Cox gave agents permission to search his computer and USB drive; they found numerous images and videos of child pornography, the report says.
Cox admitted that he frequently communicated in child-porn related internet chat rooms where people would send him large “batches” of child porn; he would then share them elsewhere on the internet, the report states.
Cox also explained that he would occasionally pretend to be a female child in the chat rooms “to see how far men would take sexualized conversations.”
If convicted of the charges against him, Cox could face up to eight and a half years in prison under the standard sentencing range.
