AUGUSTA — A judge on Wednesday denied Wade R. Hoover’s request to have his 60-year sentence reduced following convictions for sexually assaulting two boys and recording those attacks.

Justice Michaela Murphy said she wants the record to be clear about what Hoover’s sentence should be for sexually assaulting two young boys after drugging them.

After serving 35 years behind bars for raping a boy in Kennebec County, Hoover is to begin immediately serving 25 years for sexually assaulting a different boy in Somerset County. Then, should Hoover live that long, he will spend the rest of his life on supervised release.

The 38-year-old former martial arts instructor from Augusta raped two boys under age 12 in Kennebec and Somerset counties from December 2008 to April 2012 and recorded those attacks, which allowed authorities to identify him. Hoover pleaded guilty to those attacks and was sentenced on Feb. 24, 2016, at the Capital Judicial Center.

Murphy agreed to change the sentencing documents to reflect that intent following brief arguments by attorneys on Wednesday at the same courthouse.

However, she denied Hoover’s defense attorney’s request to reduce the overall 60-year term of imprisonment because it is inconsistent with the 40 years Hoover is serving for production and possession of child pornography.

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The mother of one of the victims watched Wednesday’s hearing seated next to the victim witness advocate from the district attorney’s office.

While she declined to comment on the hearing, the woman said that her son has recovered from the abuse and has told her that he is “considering” a career in law and criminal justice in particular.

Hoover is serving his federal sentence in a prison in Arizona and was not at Wednesday’s hearing on defense attorney Scott Hess’ motion to reduce or correct the sentence. His state sentence runs at the same time as the federal one.

Murphy peppered both Hess and the prosecutor in the case, Deputy District Attorney Paul Cavanaugh, with questions. Then she agreed to remove one part of the state sentence that orders Hoover to go on a lifetime of supervised release following the initial 35 years, and instead retained that condition after he finishes the consecutive 25-year sentence.

“I want to correct it so that it’s crystal clear that the supervised release commences after the 60 years,” Murphy said. “He’s not going to be ever not supervised.”

Cavanaugh said, “He will be released in 60 years. He will not be released in 35 years, because the second sentence kicks in.”

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Murphy told Cavanaugh she wanted the documents to be clear to those at the state Department of Corrections after the 35-year term is completed, “when you and I are no longer here,” Murphy said, adding, “Mr. Hess might still be around.”

Hess had objected to a state sentence that continues to run after the federal sentence has been completed.

“If they are separate independent sovereigns, why would the state court have to consider what the federal court had done?” Murphy asked him.

Hoover’s motion for sentence reduction/correction was allowed by a panel of three Maine supreme court justices. The same panel rejected five other grounds listed in Hoover’s appeal that cited factors such as an abuse of discretion by the court and unreliable evidence.

Hoover previously was sentenced in July 2013 in federal court to 40 years for conviction on charges of sexual exploitation of two boys and child pornography, telling that judge, “I’m pretty much damned in this world and the next.” Hoover said he did not deserve to be forgiven.

Forty years in prison was the maximum term of imprisonment for those crimes.

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One of Hoover’s computer hard drives had images and movies of Hoover sexually abusing one boy at various times from 2008 to 2011 and separately had 12 images and a video of Hoover abusing a second young boy on April 4, 2012, according to federal court documents.

Hoover pleaded guilty to the federal child pornography charges Feb. 5.

An appeal of Hoover’s sentence also is pending at the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, and the two lawyers told Murphy the justices there had stayed that appeal process pending a ruling in Wednesday’s proceeding.

In August 2015, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court rejected Hoover’s bid to have the indictments listing those charges dismissed. Hoover had maintained they violated his constitutional right against double jeopardy since he already was being punished for those acts via the federal court system. He also claimed state and federal authorities had colluded against him.

Hoover, a 1995 graduate of Hall-Dale High School in Farmingdale, was owner and chief instructor at Koshowarrior’s Martial Arts and the United Martial Arts academies in Lewiston, where he taught children as young as age 3. He was living in Augusta and working as a veterans’ support coordinator at the National Alliance for Mental Illness Maine when he was arrested in October 2012 at his workplace on charges of possessing sexually explicit materials.

Betty Adams can be contacted at 621-5631 or at:

badams@centralmaine.com;


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