{"id":358591,"date":"2026-07-31T09:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358591\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T09:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T09:02:12","slug":"plantation-photographer-faces-judge-after-post-cruise-arrest-on-child-sex-abuse-video-charges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/358591\/","title":{"rendered":"Plantation photographer faces judge after post-cruise arrest on child sex abuse video charges"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIAMI \u2014 A well-known Plantation photographer faced a Miami federal judge on Thursday, a little less than a week after authorities said they found child sexual abuse videos on his phone after he got off a cruise ship.<\/p>\n

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\n

Steve Lawson, 45, was taken into custody<\/a> soon after disembarking the Norwegian Getaway at PortMiami on Friday after it arrived from the Bahamas. His arrest came after customs officers searched his phone, according to court documents.<\/p>\n

Investigators said the father of seven had more than a dozen videos of young girls being raped and sexually abused, including an hour-long video that showed more than 100 victims.<\/p>\n

A federal criminal complaint states that Lawson, who photographs weddings and families, admitted to buying the videos using cryptocurrency while the ship was docked in the Bahamas and it states he claimed he was \u201centiced to do so after he observed female minors in bikinis on the cruise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail wrote an article<\/a> about Lawson and his family of nine living in a converted school bus traveling across the U.S. in 2019.<\/p>\n

That same year, Lawson was seen on Local 10 News<\/a> after sewage flooded his family\u2019s Plantation home.<\/p>\n

In court on Thursday, prosecutors argued that Lawson is a danger to the community and has an addiction.<\/p>\n

The federal judge ordered he be held on a $900,000 bond. If he posts his bond, he\u2019ll be prohibited from using any electronics or the internet and can\u2019t work as a photographer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize the serious nature of the charges and are committed to working diligently through the legal process to achieve a fair and just resolution of this case,\u201d Lawson\u2019s attorney, Susan Lawson \u2015 no relation \u2015 told Local 10 News in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But Local 10 News has learned that Steve Lawson was not the only person \u2015 or Broward resident, for that matter \u2015 arrested after getting off the Norwegian Getaway that day.<\/p>\n

A separate criminal complaint states that customs officers also looked at a phone belonging to Michael William Simmons, 40, of Tamarac, after he disembarked the cruise.<\/p>\n

Investigators said he took videos of his daughters\u2019 friends, aged 9 to 11, showering while stationed in Anchorage, Alaska for the Air Force in 2014 and said he admitted to doing so \u201cfor his sexual gratification.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said he also admitted to buying child sexual abuse videos using an encrypted system designed to conceal a user\u2019s IP address.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether the two know one another.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\udfe0 News From Your Neighborhood<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A well-known Plantation photographer faced a Miami federal judge on Thursday, a little less than a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":358592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[249,251,250],"class_list":["post-358591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/358592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}