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Music Downloads Led To Porn Sites: Former Teacher Plans to Plead Guilty to State and Federal Child Pornography Charges, Lawyer Says

Posted on: Tuesday, 16 May 2006, 12:02 CDT

By Virginia Hennessey, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

May 16--It was former teacher Larry Mead's love of classical music that led to an addiction to child pornography, his attorney said Monday.

Monterey lawyer Joe Cisneros said Mead, then a sixth-grade teacher, was downloading classical music from a "peer-to-peer" file sharing program on his school computer when he found a file obviously containing child pornography and downloaded it.

"Unfortunately he then stumbled onto one of these sites and quickly became addicted to it," he said.

Cisneros said Mead plans to plead guilty to state and federal charges "at an early opportunity."

Arrested in October on local charges, Mead, 46, has now been charged with federal violations of transmitting and possessing child pornography. The charges carry a mandatory sentence of between five and 13 years in federal prison.

Cisneros said he is pushing for Mead to be transferred from the Monterey County Jail to the federal holding facility in San Jose as soon as possible so that the former elementary school teacher can begin receiving credits for federal time served.

"He does say that he plans on pleading (guilty) to the charges in federal court at an early opportunity," Cisneros said of Mead. "He has accepted full responsibility and he feels terrible about the pain this has caused his family and friends and those who care about him.

"This is something he's serious about getting help for," he said.

Local prosecutors charged Mead with one felony and 15 misdemeanors in October, 10 months after school authorities were alerted by a technician to illegal computer activity in Mead's classroom at University Park Elementary School. School officials responded to the scene and found sexually explicit images of young girls on the computer and placed Mead on administrative leave.

Monterey County prosecutor Gary Thelander said the search of Mead's school computer revealed some 500 images -- both photographs and videos -- of young girls, many engaged in sexual activity. One of the graphic videos was dubbed "5 year old."

At the time, his attorney and friends defended Mead, saying the computer was in an open pod of classrooms and accessible to anyone.

Then, in February, with Mead free on bail, FBI agents detected Mead's presence on the LimeWire file-sharing service from his home computer. A forensic search of the computer again found explicit images of young girls.

The federal charges sharply elevate the seriousness of the charges against Mead. Under the state charges, the married father of two would have been eligible for probation and faced a maximum possible sentence of three years in prison. Under federal guidelines, he faces a minimum of five years in prison.

"The time available in federal custody is far greater than what he could serve if he was maxed out on the state charges," said Thelander, the local prosecutor. "It would seem to make sense that he would serve both state and federal time in a federal penitentiary. This assumes, of course, that he does in fact enter a plea.

"This is not a typical plea bargain situation," Thelander added. "We're not offering him anything other than 'admit your wrongdoing.'"

Cisneros said Mead will likely plead guilty to the federal charges first, a process that could take three to four months. He would then return to Monterey County to face the local charges.

Stressing that Mead has passed two federal lie-detector tests showing that he never molested a child, Cisneros said his client understands the seriousness of his actions nonetheless.

"He feels saddened that he let down the community, including the parents of students he has had over the years," he said. "He's going to get help to fight what turned in to a kind of addiction."

Cisneros said Mead never intended to distribute child pornography, as alleged in both the state and federal complaint. Those charges, he said, are an element of the computer programs from which he was downloading pornography.

Peer-to-peer services like LimeWire allow computer users to directly share files. Those who download from the service must agree to share their own files.

herald.com.

Virginia Hennessey can be reached at 753-6751 or vhennessey@monterey

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)

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