PARIS – The defense attorney for Richard Beebe, who recently pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, is seeking a hearing on the forfeiture of Beebe’s computers.

Beebe, 69, of 67 Beyer Road in Waterford, was sentenced to serve 60 days in jail on July 13. He was also forbidden from using a computer or the Internet, ordered to refrain from unsupervised contact with children under the age of 16, and required to register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Edward Dilworth III states in a motion filed in Oxford County Superior Court on Tuesday that he was unaware that Beebe’s property would be forfeited. The property, consisting mostly of computers and electronic storage devices, was seized during a search of Beebe’s residence in February.

Under the terms of the plea agreement, this property was forfeited to the state due to evidence that it had been used in perpetrating the felony. According to Dilworth, a judge will determine whether any of the property will be returned to Beebe if the matter goes to a hearing.

Assistant District Attorney Joseph O’Connor said he thought he and Dilworth had agreed that any software that could be copied would be returned to Beebe. He said if the computers are returned, they will be altered.

“He’s either not going to get the hard drive or the hard drive is going to be totally purged,” he said.

Beebe, a former volunteer at the Waterford Memorial Elementary School, came under investigation in February after chatting online with an FBI investigator posing as a single mother. The items confiscated after a search by the Maine State Police included 50 CDs, 355 floppy disks, and three laptop computers.

Investigators with the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force identified 132 pictures as child pornography. None of the children in the pictures were local, though Beebe did send a photo of a fourth-grade student at the Waterford school to the FBI investigator.

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