Lexington man facing 10 charges of child pornography
By Melissa A. Wabnitz
Transcript Staff Writer
A 45-year-old Lexington man accused of possessing a child pornography stockpile waived his right to a speedy trial Wednesday in Cleveland County District Court in anticipation of forging a plea bargain with prosecutors.
Roy Michael Lower is accused of possessing pornography on CD, DVD and VHS tapes. The material was confiscated in December from business and residential locations in Lexington, Norman and rural McClain County. He is being held in the Cleveland County Detention Center on $200,000 bond.
Lower was originally scheduled to be formally arraigned Wednesday on 10 felony child pornography charges. However, at the request of defense attorney Steve Stice and assistant district attorney David Batton, a Nov. 8 motion hearing date was set by District Judge Tom Lucas.
The motion was not the first in the case, prompting Lucas to tell Batton and Stice from the bench: "You all keep doing this every two weeks -- that's what keeps getting me."
At the November date, Stice said, he will be fully prepared to file a motion to suppress evidence or present a mutually-agreeable plea bargain, which may include the dismissal of eight of the 10 charges.
"We've reached a situation where we don't quite have a meeting of the minds yet as far as a plea agreement," he said. "But I know what we're willing to accept..."
Following the brief courtroom meeting, Batton said an additional area of negotiation is what count Lower may plead to, and how much time he'd be required to serve if convicted.
"Each count contains up to 20 years (in prison)," Batton said. Due to the nature of the charges, Lower, if convicted, would be required to serve 85 percent of the sentence before becoming eligible for parole consideration, he noted.
Lower is accused of renting a commercial business location in downtown Lexington, operating it for several months as the Lexington Youth Center. After he vacated the premises, the building was leased to new tenants, who discovered the materials while cleaning the building, police said.
Boxes filled with CDs, DVDs and VHS tapes were discovered, police said, along with several laptop computers, CPUs and keyboards, digital cameras, a color video cam, a mobile DVD player, film and electronic flashes.
Lower was arrested Dec. 20 at his Norman apartment. Investigators have itemized computer images and still photos developed from the CDs, DVDs and other film materials, as ordered by the court.
Melissa A. Wabnitz 366-3550 mwabnitz@normantranscript.com
