Mark Hicks

The Detroit News

Federal authorities allege an employee at the General Motors Technical Center in Warren viewed and stored more than 200 images of child pornography on his computer there.

Steven Dale Brown of Fenton was arrested this week and appeared Friday before Magistrate Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis on federal pornography charges.

The FBI had investigated him after a GM forensic analyst conducting random scans on company computers in April 2016 “discovered several images ... which contained prepubescent girls exposing their genitals,” authorities wrote in a complaint filed Friday in U.S. District Court.

A task force officer working with Warren police later learned a forensic report showed 244 pornographic images as well as “hundreds of child erotica images,” according to the affidavit.

A federal search warrant was executed Thursday at Brown’s home in Fenton. During an interview, the 60-year-old told authorities he had received and downloaded child porn onto external thumb drives, then viewed the material while working, the court filing stated.

“Brown also admitted that child pornography is an obsession of his and that he has amassed large collections in the past,” the document read.

The case wasn’t his first brush with the law. In 2007, Brown was convicted in Genesee County Circuit Court of second-degree attempted criminal sexual conduct involving a person under age 13, officials reported Friday.

It is unclear how long Brown, who is listed in the Michigan Public Sex Offender Registry, worked for GM. Company representatives and an attorney listed in court records as representing him did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday night.

Brown was ordered released Friday on a $10,000 bond with certain conditions, court records show. A preliminary examination is scheduled for March 10.