Microsoft Report Of Illicit Internet Activity Nets Man Lifetime Probation

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Steven Lemley [Cochise County Sheriff's Office, June 2019]

A man from northern Cochise County whose internet activity was flagged by Microsoft in 2018 due to the downloading of suspected child pornography images  will spend the rest of his life on supervised probation.

Stephen Lemley pleaded guilty late last year to a Class 3 felony for attempting to possess an image depicting the sexual exploitation of a child. He made the admission the same he was to stand trial on charges stemming from the discovery of 11 images of child pornography on his laptop.

It was one of those images which triggered a cybertip from Microsoft to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children which in turn notified the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children taskforce. Investigators with the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office then got involved and traced the internet account to Lemley.

The children depicted in the images were all under the age of 15, according to the investigative report by the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office.  As a result, the plea agreement stipulated that Lemley was pleading guilty to a dangerous crime against children.

Also stipulated in the plea deal was that Lemley would be placed on probation for a length of time determined by the Judge Timothy Dickerson. On Feb. 7, Dickerson announced that period will be Lemley’s lifetime.

The judge also ordered Lemley to register as a sex offender.

READ MORE ABOUT LEMLEY’S CASE HERE