By Conrad Dudderar
Staff Writer
A Yukon man has been convicted after pleading guilty in a child pornography case.
Michael Andrew Lusk, 55, was sentenced to prison at a June 28th hearing in Canadian County District Court.
Lusk was formally charged May 13 after admitting to a Canadian County sheriff’s investigator had had possessed and emailed photos and videos containing child pornography.
Prosecutors alleged he violated state law “by willfully possessing multiple articles of child pornography in digital image format.”
An investigation revealed Lusk had 23 digital files showing girls ages 4-13, according to court documents.
The defendant, represented by public defender Karla Tankut, appeared by videoconference from the Canadian County Jail for the recent plea and sentencing hearing.
Canadian County Special Judge Charles Gass accepted Lusk’s guilty plea and sentenced him to serve 18 months in state prison with 8-1/2 years suspended on the felony charge.
Lusk will follow special rules and conditions for convicted sex offenders. He will be supervised by the state Department of Corrections after his release.
Lusk was booked May 6 into the Canadian County Jail after being arrested by sheriff’s deputies.
STARTS WITH A ‘CYBERTIP’
The Canadian County Sheriff’s Office opened this investigation after receiving a “cybertip” from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
The case against Lusk was detailed in a probable cause affidavit signed by Sgt. David Cates.
Files of apparent child pornography were stored and emailed from the Yukon resident’s Yahoo account.
At about 9:15 a.m. May 6, the Canadian County sheriff’s investigator served a search warrant at Lusk’s apartment in the 600 block of W Vandament to collect all electronic storage devices belonging to him.
A forensic investigator was there to perform preliminary investigations of the electronic devices, according to the probable cause affidavit.
Sgt. Cates examined 23 photos/videos referred by Yahoo showing girls ages 4-13 “being posed in the nude” or “provocatively in underwear”, the affidavit shows.
The sheriff’s investigator agreed this was apparent child pornography and placed the media files in evidence. He is a member of the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force.
More images containing child pornography were found on Lusk’s personal LG cell phone.
