A Tyner resident, Kevin Lassiter, aged 40, has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for child pornography possession following his guilty plea on August 5, 2024. The Perquimans County Sheriff’s Office acted on CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which led to the discovery of the illicit content stored by Lassiter.
On September 27, 2023, service providers alerted NCMEC to 12 instances of uploaded images featuring minors in sexual acts, carried out by a user on their cloud storage platform on the Verizon network, from late July to late August that same year. Despite being a registered sex offender for similar offenses in 2013, officials linked the CyberTips to Lassiter through a phone number and Tyner address. "Investigators obtained and executed a search warrant for Lassiter’s residence," according to a statement obtained by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In the course of the search at his home, a cell phone that matched the number from the CyberTips was found, confirming its association with the uploads. Lassiter effectively self-incriminated through his behavior during the search; upon deputies seizing a hard drive he misleadingly labeled as a router, he revealed his distraught state. He later confessed the device contained the prohibited material and disclosed that he transferred images from the hard drive to his phone while under interview at the sheriff's office.
A detailed forensic examination yielded roughly 10,000 files of child sexual abuse material on Lassiter's 6TB Western Digital external hard drive. Among these, "90% of files depicting minors 10 years old or younger" were found, as noted by federal prosecutors. The announcement following Lassiter's sentencing to a decade behind bars was made by Michael Easley, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Working in tandem, the Perquimans County Sheriff's Office and the FBI investigated the case, while Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake D. Pugh handled the legal proceedings. Relevant documents can be accessed through the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina website or the PACER system by searching for Case No. 2:24-cr-0014-BO.
