Augusta man held in child-porn case
By A.J. HIGGINS
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Wednesday, August 01, 2007

AUGUSTA -- An Augusta man remained in the county jail Tuesday on a child pornography charge after failing to post a $10,000 cash or a $100,000 surety bail.

Sgt. Glenn Lang and Detective Laurie Northrup of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit said Calvin Woodburn, 50, of Mt. Vernon Avenue, was charged with possession of sexually explicit materials.

They said numerous images of children younger than 16 engaged in sex acts were recovered from a computer in his residence.

Lang said Woodburn had a significant criminal history, with convictions on unlawful sexual contact and gross sexual misconduct charges between 1985 and 1989. He was additionally charged with failing to register as a sex offender this year and was convicted of being a fugitive from justice in 2006.

"He certainly has demonstrated that, even after his prior convictions, he will continue to save pictures of children engaged in sexual acts," Lang said. "His continued interest is a cause of concern."

Monday, police obtained a search warrant to enter Woodburn's apartment and recovered the computer equipment. They had received a tip that Woodburn used pictures of naked children on his computer monitor as a screensaver.

Lang said Woodbury also was a member of MySpace.com messenger service, able send picture files and notes through the Web site.

Last week, the Maine attorney general accused MySpace.com of being "less than fully forthcoming" after learning the number of profiles linked to convicted sex offenders was more than four times what the popular online network claimed.

MySpace.com officials said they had connected 29,000 profiles to registered sex offenders nationwide -- not 7,000, as they reported in May. Of that number, 124 profiles are based in Maine, according to Carlos Diaz, a Maine assistant attorney general who serves as the legal counsel to the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit.

A.J. Higgins -- 623-3811 Ext. 431

ajhiggins@centralmaine.com

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Reader comments

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derek taxpayer of central, ME
Aug 1, 2007 5:24 AM
just yesterday a liberal judge sentenced a man on the same charges to 8 years in jail ...................and suspended the whole sentence!! doing a great job fighting crime maine !
disgraceful !report abuse
Lobster of Jefferson, ME
Aug 1, 2007 5:46 AM
Just one more case where the criminal justice system is failing. This man should still be in prison. Bout time prisons started checking on all predators released and there whereabouts. Absolutely disgusting. You can not believe how many people this man has coerced.report abuse
Independent of Gardiner, ME
Aug 1, 2007 5:53 AM

Gross.
report abuse
fattubbo of Winthrop, ME
Aug 1, 2007 6:17 AM
derek taxpayer, the LePage case you make reference to is quite a bit different from the case here in the article. In the LePage case, the offender had something like 30 images and 50 videos of children engaged in sexually explicit acts. From what I read here, the accused has even more than what LePage had. So, if our justice system were to follow course, this guy might actually serve jail time, assuming he is found guilty.

Another big difference is in the amount of money involved. LePage obviously has a lot more money than this guy does, so, he was able to afford far better legal assistance than the accused in this article.report abuse

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