An Oakridge man has been indicted by a secret Lane County grand jury on charges related to a yearlong child pornography investigation that landed the man in jail earlier this month.
Randall DeWitt Simons, 66, was taken into custody July 2 by Springfield police, who had been assisting Oakridge police in investigating a July 2018 report from A&W that someone had been using the restaurant’s WiFi to download inappropriate and concerning images.
The Lane County secret grand jury indictment alleges 15 counts of second-degree encouraging child sex abuse. Simons was arraigned Thursday and entered not guilty pleas to all of the charges. He is due back in court Aug. 7 for a pre-trial conference.
According to a search warrant affidavit filed in Lane County Circuit Court this month, police tracked a computer’s identification address from the restaurant’s WiFi system after authorities had been notified of the illegal activity. The tracking led police to a man who lived near the restaurant. After an investigation, and the service of a search warrant, police learned that man had given away his old computers that still had his identification information on them. The man provided the name of one man who he had given a computer to, who lived nearby.
In following those leads, Oakridge and Springfield police began investigating Simons in June, and using a special software program, were able to see Simons’ computer log in to the A&W WiFi in real time. A device showed police where the signal was coming from, and led to Simons’ home, the affidavit states.
A search warrant was filed June 27 to search Simons’ residence. There, police collected four laptops, three camcorders, two bags of writable optical discs, and six cameras.
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