Former UMF student pleads guilty to possessing child pornography

Keith Nadeau

- Submitted Photo

FARMINGTON — A former University of Maine at Farmington student pleaded guilty Wednesday to two misdemeanor charges of possession of sexually explicit materials of a person under 16, with the condition he can withdraw them if he wins his appeal.

The state dismissed a felony charge in a plea agreement that pertains to children under 12.

Justice Michaela Murphy sentenced Keith Nadeau, 20, of Biddeford to serve 270 days at the Franklin County jail in Farmington on the first count with credit given for time served. He was also sentenced to a consecutive 270 days on the second charge, fully suspended.

A university student reported in December 2007 that Nadeau showed him child pornography on a computer in his UMF dorm room.

Nadeau was also ordered to serve a year of probation that began Wednesday. He also has to complete counseling to the satisfaction of his probation officer and register as a sex offender for 10 years. He also may have no unsupervised contact with anyone under 16. If the child is under 14, the supervision must be done by an adult family member, Assistant District Attorney Andrew Robinson said.

He is also banned from using the Internet, and his computers are subject to random search by a probation officer.

Nadeau will be on probation until the Maine Supreme Judicial Court decides on his appeal of a court decision to allow evidence that he requested suppressed, Robinson said after the court session.

The conditional pleas may be withdrawn if Nadeau wins his appeal.

Nadeau's attorney, Michael Cunniff, said after court that he plans to appeal the evidence decision.

Cunniff asked the court in a February hearing to suppress that evidence. He said Nadeau was not read his Miranda rights before questioning and his constitutional rights were violated in several ways. Cunniff told the court then that police had a plan before they went to Nadeau's dormitory room and that his client did not consent to a search of either the flash-drive or the computer. UMF police officers stated in court that Nadeau voluntarily handed over the equipment and voluntarily talked to them.

The court found that police legally seized the flash-drive but illegally seized the laptop. However, discovery of the laptop was inevitable, the court ruled, and the evidence would not be suppressed.

Justice Murphy also stated in her decision that UMF police Chief Ted Blais blundered when he didn't get an extension for a warrant taken out in December 2007 and expired 10 days later before a full search of the equipment was done on July 2008. However, she said, it was a product of negligence and not systemic errors or reckless disregard of constitutional requirements.

One of the central pieces of the appeal, Cunniff said, is the search of the computer prior to a search warrant being granted and a second search of the computer seven months after the search warrant expired.

The UMF police officer admitted in court and on a recorded conversation heard in the courtroom that he did not have his Miranda card with him to read Nadeau his rights. The police chief later said in the hearing that the officers carry those cards at all times now.

Robinson said that the reason the felony was lowered to a misdemeanor is because it would have been difficult to prove the age of the person depicted in the image.

The guilty pleas to the misdemeanors accomplishes what the state wanted, he said.

dperry@sunjournal.com