Bangor, Maine: The United States Attorney’s Office announced that James M.
Cameron, 52, formerly of Hallowell, Maine, was sentenced in U.S. District Court by Chief
Judge John A. Woodcock, Jr., to 15 and 3/4 years in prison to be followed by six years of
supervised release. On Aug. 23, 2010, following a six-day bench trial, the defendant was
found guilty by Chief Judge Woodcock of 13 counts of transporting, receiving and possessing
child pornography. Following the conviction, the defendant was jailed. He was indicted on
Feb. 11, 2009.
The Indictment arose out of four types of activity that occurred over a 17-month period
between July 2006 and December 2007: (1) the uploading of child pornography images and
videos by the defendant from a computer in his residence to Yahoo! photo albums and briefcases
he created; (2) the sending and receiving of child pornography over Google Hello, a free chat
and file sharing computer program, by the defendant using laptop computers he carried while on
trips and family vacations; (3) the receipt by the defendant of e-mails containing child
pornography; and (4) the possession of child pornography on computers found at his residence.
All of the computers were seized from his residence on Dec. 21, 2007 during the execution
of a search warrant.
On March 10, 2011, Chief Judge Woodcock sentenced the defendant to 16 years in prison
and 10 years of supervised release. On August 9, 2011, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals (“1st
Circuit") granted the defendant’s motion to be released on bail pending appeal and he was
released on Aug. 11, 2011. On that same date, Chief Judge Woodcock set bail conditions
including that the defendant submit to active GPS location monitoring. On Nov. 14, 2012,
the 1st Circuit reversed the defendant’s convictions on six counts but affirmed his convictions on
the seven remaining counts. As a result, the defendant remained convicted of transporting,
receiving and possessing child pornography.
Following 1st Circuit’s decision on the appeal, the defendant cut off his GPS location
monitoring bracelet and fled in violation of the bail order. On Dec. 2, 2012, he was
arrested by United States Marshals in New Mexico and thereafter returned to Maine. On
Feb. 19, 2013, he pled guilty to Criminal Contempt for violating the bail order.
From August 1990 until April 2008, the defendant worked as an Assistant Attorney
General for the State of Maine, primarily handling drug prosecutions.
At re-sentencing, Chief Judge Woodcock found that the offenses involved 150-300 child
pornography images, that the images depicted prepubescent children, sadistic and other violent
conduct, that the defendant traded the images in order to obtain such images from others, that the
defendant did not accept responsibility for his conduct by waiting to admit his guilt until after he
was convicted and that the defendant obstructed justice when he fled.
The Office of the United States Attorney praised the investigation conducted by the
Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and the United States Marshals Service.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
