BERLIN, N.H. (AP) – David Cobb, the former prep school teacher dubbed the “Pumpkin Man” after getting arrested with a backpack full of child pornography and a pumpkin mask, is to be released from prison today after serving 11 years.

Now 71, Cobb was serving a sentence for attempted sexual assault of a 12-year-old boy and possessing hundreds of images of child porn. He is to be released from the state prison in Berlin.

Cobb taught English at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., for three decades until his arrest in August 1995, when he was caught walking near his Farmington summer home with the boy, the backpack containing the porn, the pumpkin mask and a list of prices for sexual acts titled “Pay Scale for Helping Pumpkin.” He became infamous as the “Pumpkin Man,” because he wore the mask while soliciting children.

Cobb later pleaded guilty in Maine to unlawful sexual contact with a 9-year-old girl and 12-year-old boy in 1985. He was given an 18-month concurrent sentence. He became eligible for parole in 2003, but has repeatedly been denied because of his refusal to enter a sex offender treatment program, said Department of Corrections spokesman Jeff Lyons.

“Once he maxes out his sentence, there’s nothing more the department can do,” Lyons said.

“When Friday gets here, he gets to go home.”

Corrections officials flagged Cobb as a candidate for commitment past his prison sentence under New Hampshire’s new sex offender law, which allows authorities to seek civil commitment of those deemed a public risk. Strafford County Attorney Janice Rundles said Cobb is ineligible because he was not convicted of sexual assault in New Hampshire and the Maine conviction does not meet the risk threshold.

“We did review his case,” Rundles said. “I believe he was flagged because he didn’t finish certain (prison) programs, but he had no qualifying crimes.”

Cobb will be required to register as a sex offender within five days of his release.