A man with a Ph.D. in Physics living with family at On Top of the World in Ocala has been arrested on 20 counts of child pornography.
After a thorough investigation conducted alongside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, Marion County sheriff’s detectives took 48-year-old Lawrence Margulies into custody.
Margulies, who is an American citizen, was working in Canada in 2017 when he was deported from the country for possessing child pornography. Margulies was residing with family at On Top of the World when he was arrested for the same offense Friday morning.
MCSO Detective Shannon Wiles with the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit received a tip in February that Margulies had child pornography. After a thorough investigation, Detective Wiles secured a search warrant for Margulies’ residence, located at 9378 SW 90th Court Unit C in the On Top of the World subdivision.
During the search on Friday, authorities from the MCSO and HSI located 20 files of explicit child pornography on a laptop computer. Detecives also located a thumb drive containing child pornography in Margulies’ bedroom. Margulies was immediately placed under arrest and was transported to the Marion County Jail.
Margulies has been charged with 20 counts of possession of child Pornography and was booked on $100,000 bond.
