PORTLAND — A federal judge has convicted James M. Cameron on 13 of 15 child pornography counts against him.

Cameron, a former top drug prosecutor for the state Attorney General’s Office, was immediately put into custody following the ruling by Judge John Woodcock Jr. He will be sentenced at a hearing later this year.

Cameron was found guilty on eight counts of sending, four counts of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography in 2006 and 2007. Judge Woodcock found Cameron not guilty on two counts of sending child pornography.

The bench trial lasted six days at U.S. District Court.

Cameron stood next to his attorney, Michael Cunniff, and showed no emotion as Woodcock read the verdicts.

2:05 p.m.

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PORTLAND — The fate of a former top state drug prosecutor, accused of sending, receiving and possessing child pornography online, is now in the hands of a federal judge.

The trial of James M. Cameron wrapped up this afternoon with closing arguments at U.S. District Court. Cameron declined to take the stand in his own defense. The trial opened last Monday.

Cameron, 48, was an assistant state attorney general three years ago when he came under investigation.

He was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2009.

District Judge John Woodcock Jr. must decide if Cameron is guilty or not guilty on 10 counts of sending child pornography, four counts of receiving it and one count of possessing it. Cameron waived his right to a jury.

Woodcock has not given the parties an indication on how long it will take him to return a verdict.

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Cameron has been free on $75,000 bail. He is prohibited from using the Internet and he has been wearing an electronic monitor on his ankle.

During closing arguments today, federal prosecutors said Cameron created 17 different user profiles on Yahoo and left a trail of child pornography on Yahoo file servers and on four home computers, despite extensive efforts by him to delete files from those machines.

His lawyer, Michael Cunniff, said the government failed to prove that it was Cameron who sent, received or possessed any illegal photographs or videos. Cunniff said that if Cameron inadvertantly received illegal images, he deleted them because he was not interested in child pornography.

 


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