A resident of The Quarters Apartments was arrested on a warrant this week in connection with a child pornography investigation.
On June 30, an officer with the Lady Lake Police Department got a tip regarding 66-year-old Robert Michael McGuire emailing child sexual abuse material, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The tip was initially reported by Yahoo Inc. on January 3. Analysis determined McGuire lived in North Dakota at the time, and an agent with the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation was assigned the case on March 4. He found that McGuire had emailed himself a file described as “a video file 2 minutes and 13 seconds in length showing a nude, prepubescent male child masturbating,” the affidavit said.
The agent also learned McGuire had moved to The Quarters Apartments, located at 797 Teague Trail, Lady Lake, and passed this information onto the Lady Lake Police Department. A detective executed a search warrant for the apartment on Aug. 12. With the help of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, they seized McGuire’s iPhone 14 and Lenovo Think Book computer, the affidavit said.
The detective interviewed McGuire, as well. He confirmed he was the only person in the apartment and the owner of the email address until Yahoo terminated it. He remembered sending 15 to 20 photos and videos from his phone to his computer using his email account, but he did not remember they were full nudity, the affidavit said.
McGuire claimed that most of the photos he saved to his computer were of clothed boys under the age of 18 wearing only swimsuits. He had sole access to the accounts and electronic devices, and he gave the passwords to law enforcement. The FDLE mobile forensics unit later found the file on McGuire’s cellphone and laptop, the affidavit said.
McGuire was arrested at his apartment on a warrant Tuesday evening charging him with possession of child pornography. The Rhode Island native was transported to Lake County Jail and released after posting $10,000 bond.