Two South Florida men who were taken into custody at PortMiami after coming off a cruise are accused of having child sexual abuse content on their phones.
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Steve Lawson, 45, and Michael Simmons, 40, were searched separately by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers after the Norwegian cruise docked on Friday.
The two have no apparent connection other than what authorities found on their phones.
Lawson, a well-known wedding photographer, is charged with possessing and transporting child sexual abuse material.
The criminal complaint says Lawson’s phone had 14 videos in an app on his phone, including an hour-long video showing a compilation of more than 100 underage girls performing sexual acts.
The complaint states Lawson admitted to buying the video using cryptocurrency while on the cruise because he was “enticed to do so after he observed female minors in bikinis on the cruise.”
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“We recognize the serious nature of the charges and are committed to working diligently through the legal process to achieve a fair and just resolution of this case,” his attorneys from Lawson & Simmons, PLLC said in the statement.
Meanwhile, federal documents detail a separate case involving Simmons, who is accused of having videos of underage girls showering between the ages of 9 and 11, who were friends of his daughter.
Documents also show that Simmons admitted to recording the videos himself back in 2014.
He is now facing production of child sexual abuse material. NBC6 is awaiting a response from his attorney.
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Both men are in federal custody, with their arraignments set for Aug. 10.