Photographer who sold JonBenét Ramsey's photos for $7,500 indicted on multiple child porn charges
A photographer, infamous for selling a portfolio of photos of six-year-old Colorado beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey for $7,500 after her 1996 murder, has been arrested for child pornography in Oregon.
The 66-year-old accused, Randall DeWitt Simons, was taken into custody on July 2 by Springfield Police following a year-long investigation that was looking into a report that he had used a popular restaurant's WiFi connection to download "inappropriate and concerning images", according to the Register Guard.
Oakridge Police was called to investigate in July 2018 after A&W reported that someone had used their WiFi system for illegal activity, stated a search warrant affidavit filed in the Lane County Circuit Court. Investigators used the WiFi system to track a computer's identification address, which, in turn, led them to the address of a man who lived near the restaurant.
The man, however, told the police that he had given away those computers with the relevant identification information on them to another man who also lived nearby, which led them to Simons.
This past June, Oakridge and Springfield Police began investigating Simons. They used a special software program and were able to see the 66-year-old's computer log in to A&W's WiFi in real-time. A device then showed them where the signal was coming from, leading them to his home.
A search warrant executed on June 27 on the residence saw police collect four laptops, three camcorders, two bags of writable optical discs, and six cameras, and when questioned, Simons reportedly described himself as a "child photographer".
A Lane County secret grand jury indicted Simons on 15 counts of second-degree encouraging child sex abuse this past Thursday, July 11. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges. The 66-year-old is scheduled to make his next appearance in court on August 7 for a pre-trial conference.
Police have asked parents of children that have been left alone with him to contact Oakridge police at 541-782-4232 or the Lane County Sheriff’s Office at 541-682-4150.
This is not Simons' — who claims on his social media profile that he graduated from the 'School of Hard Knocks' with a degree in 'girl watching' — first run-in with the law. He was arrested in Lincoln County, Colorado, on October 1998 and charged with indecent exposure after he allegedly walked down a Genoa residential street naked.
He was subsequently held in the Lincoln County Jail in Colorado pending a psychiatric evaluation, but the outcome of that investigation is unclear.
