MWC Restaurant Manager Arrested For Possession Of Child Porn

Officers arrested a restaurant manager for possession of child pornography. Police interrupted the Lee Thurber's Friday night shift at the Chuck House Restaurant in Midwest City in order to serve him a search warrant.

Monday, August 5th 2013, 5:35 pm

By: News 9


Officers arrested a restaurant manager for possession of child pornography. Police interrupted the Lee Thurber's Friday night shift at the Chuck House Restaurant in Midwest City in order to serve him a search warrant.

Investigators say they found out Thurber was doing more than running a restaurant. Court records show he also managed a child porn collection.

8/5/2013 Related Story: MWC Restaurant Manager Accused Of Distributing Child Porn

Steve Tanner with the Oklahoma Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force explained Thurber used the internet to share sexually explicit images of children with an undercover Edmond Police Detective.

"He was doing it during work hours," Tanner said.

Tanner said the IP address used to send the pictures traced back to Thurber's business.

"We don't know at this time what children he had access to, but of course with it being a public business and if he had tendencies to act on some of those things, then possible victims could be his patrons," Tanner said.

Investigators searched the restaurant and recovered the only computer in the building,  Thurber's personal laptop computer containing nearly 42 pornographic images of girls ages 8 to 12 years old.

Tanner said the OSBI is now reviewing every photo on the computer.

"The number on thing is to identify children so we will be searching the images very closely to see if there's any local children," Tanner said.

Court Records also indicate that Thurber admitted to viewing and downloading child pornography on the internet. He told investigators he would search words like "teen" and "barely legal" to locate porn on different websites.

Investigators explained that Thurber could not give a reason for why he kept the files stored on his computer, but it could give agents plenty of evidence in this case.

The OSBI will now do a full forensic exam of the computer. In the meantime, Thurber is out of jail on a $32,000 bond.

We were not able to reach him or his attorney before this story aired. Thurber faces charges for possession and distribution of child pornography, as well as, violating the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act.

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