By NICO SCAVELLA
Tribune Staff Reporter
nscavella@tribunemedia.net
FORMER police officer Edmund “EJ” Lewis Jr, who was accused of producing child porn videos between 2014 and 2015, has been given a conditional discharge of two years after being found guilty on one count of child pornography.
Former Deputy Chief Magistrate Andrew Forbes, in a ruling on November 13, said during those two years Lewis Jr will be required to attend the Department of Social Services, specifically the Domestic Violence Unit and perform 50 hours of community service.
Upon full compliance and completion of the order, Lewis Jr will be given an absolute discharge, the written ruling said.
However, the Office of the Attorney General filed an appeal yesterday against the ruling by then-Magistrate Forbes, now a Supreme Court judge, on the grounds that the sentence is “unduly lenient”.
Lewis Jr, a former constable, previously stood trial concerning allegations he produced child pornography videos between July 2014 and January 21, 2015.
He was first arraigned on January 23, 2015 and denied bail. He was dismissed from the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF) shortly after charges were filed against him.
He elected to be tried in the Magistrates Court and was granted $5,000 bail days after being re-arraigned due to an “inadvertent error” at his first court appearance, when he should have been given the option to be tried in either the Magistrates Court or Supreme Court and enter a plea to the charges.
In February of 2016, the court heard how Lewis Jr allegedly admitted, in his record of interview with police, to filming his sexual encounters with a teenage girl he met in September 2014. However, Lewis Jr allegedly said he thought the girl was older than 17 and she consented to being filmed.
According to the record of interview, taken in January 2015, Lewis Jr was asked by a senior officer about allegations that he secretly filmed his sexual interaction with the complainant in the matter.
Lewis Jr said the sexual interactions between the two began in September of 2014. In response to questions by the interviewing officer, Lewis Jr said he recorded the interactions on his Samsung Galaxy S2 cellphone in his room on two occasions, and that the complainant was aware.
He further denied soliciting anyone or secretly filming sex, adding that “everything was consensual.”
When asked by the interviewing officer why he filmed their encounters, Lewis Jr allegedly said: “We both agreed to it and it was fun,” adding that it was for sexual gratification.
And when asked if anyone else was involved, Lewis Jr said there was a 19-year-old whom he met sometime in October 2014 and had sex with both females. However, he denied filming the acts without their permission.
When asked by the interviewing officer what he subsequently did with the contents, Lewis Jr said he “took the chip out of the phone and secured it.”
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