Officer of the year

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer who was charged with three counts of child porn possession in St. Johns County resigned before being fired, the FWC said.
Officer William Lee Lawshe, 53, of St. Augustine, was booked into the St. Johns County Jail on Wednesday.
According to Lawshe’s arrest report, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office received a cyber-tip on Feb. 20 from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about someone who had uploaded child sexual abuse material. The tip was first sent to the NCMEC from an electronic service provider.
A deputy reviewed the tip, determined the image was of child sexual abuse and figured out the phone from the cyber-tip belonged to Lawshe, the arrest report said.
According to the report, investigators made contact with Lawshe on Wednesday, and he confirmed that the phone from the tip was his and that it “was in his dominion and control” when the abuse material was uploaded.

After contacting Lawshe, investigators conducted a deeper search and found three files depicting two unknown children in a sexually explicit manner directly linked to Lawshe’s phone, the report said.
https://res.cloudinary.com/graham-me...pg?_a=AJARNWIA
FWC Officer Lee LawsheLawshe has been an FWC officer since 2008 and was named the national wildlife officer of the year in 2014 after he rescued a man trapped for days in a Flagler County swamp.

A spokesperson said Lawshe “resigned prior to termination by the FWC.”
“These charges are detestable to me and all of our employees and in no way reflect our values as an agency,” said Col. Roger Young, Director of the FWC Division of Law Enforcement. “As both a law enforcement officer and a father, I’m angered by the allegations connected with this arrest. He has betrayed the oath that all law enforcement officers take to protect the public and he will be held accountable for his actions. I’d like to thank St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office for their hard work on this case.”
Prior to becoming an FWC officer, Lawshe served in the U.S. Army as a light infantry fire team leader.
News4JAX had previously featured Lawshe in a story in 2019 when he shared about his lifelong battle with Lyme disease.
Lawshe’s bond is set at $60,000. He isn’t allowed to have possession of any device with internet access.