Day care worker arrested on child porn charges

(2/06/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- A daycare worker in east Harris County is jailed accused of possessing child pornography. What makes this case unusual is that the suspect is a woman.

As parents pick their kids up from the Childhood Seasons Day Care on Normandy near the East Freeway, news a young female employee had recently been arrested for pornography came as a surprise.

Parent Janie Espinoza said, "We haven't even been informed yet, and I'd like to know why we haven't been informed what's going on."

A cyber tip led investigators to Renee Lofton. The attorney general's cyber crimes unit arrested the 21-year-old at her Channelview home, where a search of her computer and external media revealed hundreds of images of child pornography.

"It's disturbing, very," said parent Lyn Comeaux. "I wonder what class she was working with."

The cyber tip came from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children -- an agency that discovered Lofton was allegedly posting sexually explicit images of children on the Internet.

Employees of the day care wouldn't talk to Eyewitness News on camera, but did say Lofton was a new employee. Investigators are working with CPS to determine if any of the children at the day care match photos confiscated as evidence.

Parent Sonny Morales said, "Now I have to think more about if there's anybody at his preschool like that, is there anybody else here like that, or anywhere else."

If convicted, Lofton could face up to 10 years behind bars and up to a $10,000 fine.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

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