Lake Alfred City Commissioner Charles Lake has been arrested on charges of possessing child pornography.
An arrest affidavit shows Polk County Sheriff's deputies served a warrant at Lake's home. Lake, documents show, confessed to police that he was in possession of child pornography, including many images kept on a "Patriot" USB drive.
The Lake Alfred Republican now faces 300 counts of possessing child pornography. The 90-year-old possessed pictures, based on the charges, of children between the ages 2 and 12 engaged in sex acts.
Lake, before winning elected office in Florida, spent 50 years in magazine publishing in New York City, according to his city biography. That included a stint as production director for Women's Day. He also held such a position with three other monthly magazines and 19 special interest magazines.
Lake was a member of the Association of Publication Production Managers for more than 40 years, and served twice as President.
After retirement, he lived briefly in New Jersey working in retail, but moved to Polk County in 2008. He first became involved in the city in 2009, first as a member of the Planning Board and then with the Friends of the Library.
He first ran for office in 2011 but lost. The following year, he was appointed to a vacancy, and then won a term on his own in 2013. Lake served as Mayor of Lake Alfred from 2015 to 2019, and held a regular event called "Monday Morning with the Mayor." Lake did not seek re-election in 2022, but returned to the Commission the next year and currently is serving a term that expires in 2027.
And according to an investigation affidavit, he was looking at child porn regularly during that entire period.
"I do not know how much child porn I possess, but I have been looking at it since I lived in New Jersey," he told investigators, according to an affidavit excerpt published by the Lakeland Ledger.
Authorities were alerted after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip that an individual was uploading images in the region of an underage girl. After filing subpoenas with web providers and cross-referencing that with police databases, authorities traced the digital activity to Lake's home.
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