SANTA ROSA BEACH — Lane Rees, a former Walton County Commissioner and its elected Republican state committeeman, has been arrested on child pornography charges.
Rees was taken into custody at about 5 p.m. Monday at his Santa Rosa Beach home after deputies served a search warrant, Walton County Sheriff Mike Adkinson said.
He has been charged with possession of child pornography. Adkinson said “multiple images” were found at the home.
“Corroborating evidence” supporting the charges “was found at the home,” Adkinson said. “He has for sure got some pretty significant images.”
Rees was at home with his adult daughter when investigators arrived to serve the warrant, Adkinson said. Rees had “no clue” he was under investigation, he said.
The warrant service concluded what the sheriff said had been a monthlong investigation conducted by a cyber-investigation team.
“They received a tip and told me what they’d found. I authorized them to move forward,” Adkinson said.
Rees owns his own business, Human Resources Solutions.
He was elected the county’s Republican state committee man in 2008 and has served in that capacity since. His wife, Brenda, is the county’s elected state committee woman.
Rees emerged on the political scene in Walton County in 1999 when he was appointed executive director of the South Walton Community Council.
The next year, Rees was elected to the Walton County Commission.
He served as a commissioner for four years but was defeated in his reelection bid by a fellow Republican, 23-year-old candidate named Scott Brannon.
The Rees-Brannon campaign was eye opening for the amount of money that was raised by two men seeking a seat that paid less than $34,000 a year. The Florida Commission on Ethics would later fine Brannon and a group that supported his campaign for violations.
Rees was named the “Community Walton Man of the Year” in 2011.
Adkinson said more information about the arrest and investigation would be released Tuesday. Investigators have seized computer equipment and other items from his home.
The number of possession of child pornography charges brought is determined by the number of images found as investigators go through the software used to download them.
Rees was booked in the Walton County Jail on Monday and faces more than 10 years in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted of the possession charge as well as the charge of transmission of child pornography.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.