PORTLAND — A judge Thursday ordered a 69-year-old sex offender from Portland to be held without bail after his arrest for an alleged probation violation.

In September 2007, a jury convicted Melvin Logan on 19 misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison plus six years of probation.

Logan, a former high school English teacher in New York state, was convicted there for child endangerment, grand larceny and disorderly conduct.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Norbert told Justice Roland Cole on Thursday that Logan violated his probation by failing to complete court-ordered sex offender counseling. Logan also has ignored an order that bars him from using the Internet, and he did not report to his probation officer Monday morning, Norbert said.

Norbert said Logan wrote a 500-page book, apparently posted online by a relative, that claims he was the target of a conspiracy and was wrongfully convicted.

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On the book’s website, Norbert, Justice Thomas Warren, Logan’s trial attorney, Joel Vincent, and several others in the court system are described as “faces of fascism.”

“We’re concerned that his mental health is deteriorating,” Norbert said during Thursday’s hearing in Portland District Court.

Logan said his mental health is not an issue, and he urged Cole to read the book and make his own decision about whether he got a fair trial. Logan also denied any violations of his probation. He said he wrote the book on a word processor and had someone post it online for him.

“The idea that I used the Internet is ridiculous,” he said.

Logan said he has not been fully involved in sex offender counseling because he disputes his conviction. He said that he is not a threat to anyone in the community, and that he takes care of his 91-year-old mother.

Cole told Logan that full participation in his counseling is not optional.

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The judge ordered Logan to have a competency examination and a risk assessment by a psychologist, and to remain in jail at least until his next hearing, on July 30.

Cole also ordered Logan to have no contact with the jurors from his trial. Logan had sent a juror a letter asking him to read his book.

Logan was arrested in March 2004 after he took his computer to a repair shop in Windham.

A technician there found images that appeared to be child pornography, and reported the findings to police.

In an interview at the time of his trial, Logan said he stumbled on the images while doing research for his business — selling “male masturbation machines.”

Logan said he sold 24 of his machines for $300 apiece to customers in Spain, Australia, Mexico and the United States.

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He found the images on another pornographic website, and said he saved them to his computer because he wanted to create a similar banner “pop-up” for his own site.

 

Staff Writer Trevor Maxwell can be contacted at 791-6451 or at:

tmaxwell@pressherald.com

 


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