FBI declines to pursue inquiry into North Las Vegas mayor over child porn case

By Megan Messerly

Published Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 | 4:30 p.m.

Updated Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015 | 5:25 p.m.

The FBI will not move forward with an inquiry into the North Las Vegas Police Department’s handling of a case involving possible child pornography found on North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee’s iPad, police said today.

North Las Vegas police turned the case over to the FBI for an independent review after former Police Chief Joseph Chronister made details of the case public in May. Chronister told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that the mayor had received special treatment in the department’s handling of the case.

The FBI notified the police department this week that they had insufficient information to move forward with any further action. The police department’s investigation remains closed due to a lack of prosecutorial evidence. The FBI declined to give further comment.

In a phone interview today, Lee said he was “very happy” to hear the announcement and was glad that a third party took a look at the case to make sure he didn’t receive any special treatment. He said his only disappointment with the situation was the impact that it had on his wife and children.

“I love our police force,” Lee said. “Had they seen anything wrong or heinous, I would have expected them to press charges. I was given no special treatment.”

Last October, Lee reported to police that he had opened an email on his personal iPad that contained several images that he thought might be child pornography. Lee approached a detective at City Hall on Oct. 9 and asked him what he should to do remove the images from the device and to investigate.

A police officer from the unit responsible for child sex crimes then contacted Lee, telling the mayor that he would look into the matter after he returned from vacation.

When the officer took possession of the device on Oct. 20, he was not able to locate the email address from which Lee said the images were sent nor did he find child pornography in the image and video folders of the iPad.

He did locate a URL titled “Live Sex Cams: Free Live Porn” viewed that day that linked to a website with pornographic images. The officer was unable to verify the ages of those depicted, the report said.

The officer then cleared the device and returned it to the mayor.

“North Las Vegas has moved on in spite of this little blip. We are going to do great things in the community,” Lee said. “I’m glad to have this behind me. Case closed.”