A Boothbay man pleaded guilty in Lincoln County Superior Court June 26 to five charges of possession of sexually explicit materials and could face as much as two years in prison when sentenced later this year.
Joseph Pinkham, 28, was indicted by grand jury in March on 10 charges of possession of sexually explicit material, seven of which were class C felony charges and three were class D misdemeanors.
The material depicted, depending on the specific charge, minors under the age of 12 or 16 engaging in sexually explicit conduct, according to the indictment.
The charges stemmed from investigations by the Maine State Police and Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, and three different computers Pinkham had access to and his cellphone were seized at various times, according to Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Liberman.
Pinkham was found in possession of over 200 images of children ages 2 to 12 engaged in sexually explicit acts or posed in lewd manners and a dozen videos of children in the same age range engaged in sexually explicit acts when his computer and cellphone were seized last October, according to a statement by Lincoln County Sheriff’s Detective Scott Hayden.
“This is the third time Pinkham has been found to be in possession of child pornography,” Hayden said in the statement.
Liberman presented a written plea agreement to Justice Daniel Billings, in which Pinkham would plead guilty to three of the felony charges and two of the misdemeanor charges in exchange for a sentence of five years in prison with all but a maximum of two years suspended, and two years probation.
Billings accepted the agreement and Pinkham’s plea, but sentencing was continued until September to allow for another criminal case of Pinkham’s to be transferred to Lincoln County from Rockland.
Pinkham will have the opportunity to argue for less than the two-year cap of jail time at his sentencing, Billings said.
The remaining five charges were dismissed, Liberman said.
Pinkham will be required to register as a sex offender, and it is anticipated he will be a lifetime registrant, Billings said.
“It’s a reasonable outcome at this point,” said Pinkham’s attorney, David Paris. “We’ll see what Justice Billings says in September.”
Paris said the state and federal government are “all over the place” in terms of how these crimes are sentenced, and a cap of two years is “a reasonable place to start.”
Liberman declined to comment on the case until the sentencing takes place.
“We don’t have a full picture of the outcome yet,” he said.
Pinkham will remain in custody at Two Bridges Regional Jail until his sentencing, Liberman said.
