Child pornographer sentenced West Gardiner man found guilty of transmitting images over Net

BANGOR – A West Gardiner man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Tuesday after his conviction on three counts related to the possession, receipt and transmission of child pornography over the Internet.

Adam Dean, 40, was ordered to report on Aug. 28 to a federal prison yet to be selected. After his prison term, he was ordered to complete five years of supervised release.

U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal sentenced Dean to 88 months in prison during a hearing at U.S. District Court in Bangor.

In April, Dean was convicted of the offenses by a jury during a three-day trial. He was indicted by a federal grand jury in the summer of 2000. A detective testified at Dean’s trial that he had linked graphic child pornography images to Dean’s online account.

An investigation of his West Gardiner home by U.S. Customs agents revealed 11 diskettes containing images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The computer diskettes were found in a cardboard box labeled “Adult Videos-Rabbit Fur,” according to court testimony.

Through his attorney, Walter McKee of Augusta, Dean claimed that an imposter had acquired his screen name and password on a computer account with America Online and that it was the imposter who collected graphic child pornography images on Dean’s online file.

In 1985, Dean was convicted in Cumberland County Superior Court of unlawful sexual contact.

At the April trial in Bangor, Detective Mike Dimatteo from the San Bernardino, Calif., Sheriff’s Department testified that he investigates child pornography offers on the Internet as part of his job. Last winter, he went into an AOL chat room and requested child pornography from a person with the screen name “Yahso1.” The screen name belonged to Dean.

Pictures were transmitted that fit the definition of child pornography, according to Dimatteo. Dean also transmitted pictures on two other occasions under a different screen name, according to testimony.

The father of four children, Dean is married to his third wife. An ex-wife, Priscilla Dean, testified at his trial that Dean had approached her recently about getting a computer and indicated he had access to child pornography. The woman, in halting testimony, said she called the police after Dean made the offer.

Dean’s attorney said, however, that Priscilla Dean had found out recently that Adam Dean had married the baby sitter with whom he had run off several years ago. Attorney McKee told jurors Priscilla Dean was still in love with her husband.