Child Porn Extradition Leads to Sexual-Abuse Arrest

While a Lompoc Unified School District employee waited in Santa Barbara County Jail for extradition to Fargo, North Dakota, on four felony charges of possession of child pornography, he was charged on July 15 with a new count of continued sexual abuse of a child.

Royce Devin Warner, 36, had worked in the print shop at Lompoc Unified since last July and was arrested there on June 20 on the extradition warrant. An investigation by detectives over several weeks developed information that led to the charge of sexual abuse, which had occurred over several months, according to Kelly Hoover, a spokesperson for the Sheriff’s Office. The crimes against the child did not occur on school grounds, Hoover added.

Warner remains in County Jail on $500,000 bail, and his next court date is September 8 in Lompoc. He will face his California charges before extradition is considered.

Out of concern for as-yet-unknown victims, the Sheriff’s Office asks members of the public with information of related crimes to call the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division at (805) 934-6170.