FBI probing child porn on North Vegas Mayor John Lee's iPad

The FBI is launching an independent investigation into child porn on a Nevada mayor's iPad after he complained to police about it, according to law enforcement authorities.

North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee told a City Hall police officer last year that he "had an issue with kiddie porn popping up on his computer", recently retired North Las Vegas Police Chief Joseph Chronister told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Police found "sexually explicit material possessed by Mayor John Lee", but determined there were "not sufficient grounds for prosecution and the case was ultimately closed", said department spokesman Aaron Patty. The case has now been turned over to the FBI to "in order to ensure the objectivity of the investigation", Patty added.

Lee told a detective that someone had sent him an email and then images that appeared to be child pornography began popping up on his iPad and that he wanted them gone, according to a police report, according to the newspaper.

The mayor allowed an investigator to examine his iPad. In a single-day probe, the detective found no emails involving porno­graphy, but found three links to porno­graphic websites in the tablet's browser history, one of which appeared to involve children, he stated in the police report.

"I did locate several possible photos that could be considered child porno­graphy, but since they were in a different country, I could not verify the age of the people pictured," the detective wrote.

The detective then took the iPad to an Apple store, had it wiped clean and returned it to Lee.

Chronister, who was in charge during the investigation, now says Lee got special treatment in the investigation and wishes he had immediately called in help from an outside agency.

"We're talking about the mayor of North Las Vegas," Chronister said. "He is a person of authority. He is a person of power. He absolutely has the ability to control certain aspects of our department."

The FBI was called in by the city's new police chief, Alexander Perez, reports Fox News.

Lee is now disputing that he approached a City Hall police officer about the porn. He also said he's confused by the fact that police couldn't find the email he mentioned. He has "emphatically" denied any impropriety.