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Mecham convicted in child porn case
After a four-day trial, a federal jury sitting in Boise today convicted Lorrie Elmer Mecham, 69, of Mountain Home, of one count of receiving sexually explicit images of minors, and three counts of possessing sexually explicit images of minors, the U.S. Attorney's Office has announced.
The investigation began in August 2007 when Mecham's wife became suspicious that her husband was using his computer to obtain child pornography from the internet. After finding a cooler filled with hundreds of floppy discs and CDs hidden in the crawl space of their home, she contacted Mountain Home Police, who found sexually explicit images of children on one of the discs.
The case was originally charged in Elmore County, but after the two computers belonging to Mecham were examined and found to contain tens of thousands of child pornography images, some dating back to 1999, federal authorities were contacted and the FBI joined the investigation.
FBI analysts examined more than 600 discs from the cooler and other discs found by Mountain Home Police during a search of the defendant's home, and found that many of the discs contained sexually explicit images of minors, ranging from toddlers to teens.
They also found adult pornography, non-pornographic photos of Mecham and his family, as well as business documents connected to Mecham on the discs containing child pornography.
According to court documents, the FBI investigation showed that Mecham had a long history of child sexual exploitation, including a conviction for child molestation in Georgia in 1987 in which he admitted molesting two girls, ages seven and nine.
Sentencing is set for Aug. 24 before U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge in Boise.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of up to 45 years imprisonment (15 years for the receiving count, ten each for the possession counts), with a mandatory minimum of five years without possibility of parole, a fine of up to $1 million, and supervised release for at least five years, up to life.
U.S. Attorney Tom Moss praised the cooperative work of the Mountain Home Police Department and agents and computer analysts from the FBI. Moss also singled out for praise digital forensic examiner Lam Nguyen of the consulting firm Stroz Friedberg in Boston, who examined Mecham's computers and provided expert testimony on digital forensics during the trial.
"The best way to stop this harmful and persistent crime of exploiting children is through excellent investigations and well-deserved prison sentences," Moss said.