AUGUSTA — A registered sex offender from Augusta was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison for possessing sexually explicit materials depicting a minor under 12, the same crime that put him on the registry in the first place.
James R. Brann, 31, pleaded guilty at the Capital Judicial Center to the offenses, which occurred July 30, 2015.
Assistant District Attorney Frayla Tarpinian said the investigation was triggered after Brann’s probation officer checked his cellphone on that date and found images of young children in various bondage positions.
Two of the images in particular, which Tarpinian said showed young boys bound and gagged, were used as the basis for the charges.
Brann received the maximum sentence available under the law, Tarpinian said.
Brann’s attorney, Robert Ruffner, said the images were not provided to the defense but were described.
Brann was convicted in 2009 in Lincoln County of the same offense, and he was sentenced an initial six months in jail, with the remainder of the four-year sentence suspended.
The new convictions will result in a full revocation of that probation, Justice Robert Mullen was told, and they require Brann to register as lifetime sex offender. Previously he had been required to register for 10 years.
Brann has been held at Two Bridges Regional Jail in Wiscasset since his arrest on the probation violation.
Betty Adams — 621-5631
Twitter: @betadams
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