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Former JSO officer arrested on child porn-related charges

A former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Officer has been arrested on charges relating to child pornography.

The US Attorney’s Office has arrested 59-year-old Michael Eugene Williams for publishing a notice seeking child pornography, receipt of child pornography, and possession of child pornography. JSO confirms to WOKV that Williams worked more than 15 years as an officer with JSO before resigning for personal reasons in 2011.

The criminal complaint says JSO found messages between Williams and a woman from Texas who had a three-year-old daughter. The woman would send explicit photos and videos of the girl in exchange for money. Williams’ phone also showed explicit chats detailing sexual conduct Williams wanted to engage in with the child.

The search warrant obtained by WOKV says the investigation in to Williams actually started with a Cyber Tip from Google’s Legal Compliance personnel to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The tip sent 11 files- five videos and six photos of child porn- on a Google Drive account. The search warrant goes in to explicit detail of what’s depicted, including that the videos show the child being penetrated by an adult. Messages exchanged between Williams and the mother of the victim also show explicit language, including him asking the woman to do certain sexual things to the girl.

The child victim is now in the custody of protective services in Texas, according to the search warrant. The mother told investigators she had received about $200 from Williams for 50 files over a few months in exchange for the pornography, but records obtained by investigators show the total to be around $745. The records also show that some of the transactions took place after police initially searched Williams’ home on Normandy Blvd.

A detention hearing has been scheduled for Friday. Williams is being held until then.

He could face up to 60 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

WOKV has requested Williams’ personnel history from JSO and will update as that information becomes available.

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