AUBURN — Prosecutors are sifting through computer child pornography evidence for possible criminal charges against the former publisher of a local magazine and organizer of a community film festival who also served on the City Council.

Deputy District Attorney Andrew Robinson said Thursday that his office received “a lot of material” from the Maine Computer Crimes Task Force, which seized the computer of Joshua Shea, 38, of 30 Paul St. on March 20, the day of his arrest. The Secret Service also investigated.

Shea was charged in March with a single count of possession of sexually explicit materials, a Class C felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.

Robinson said his office expects to take Shea’s case before an Androscoggin County grand jury sometime after August, possibly seeking additional felony charges.

Shea was attending an out-of-state “intensive residential treatment facility for issues relating to matters which may be relevant to this prosecution,” his Lewiston attorney, David Van Dyke, wrote in a motion last spring. Shea’s therapeutic treatment was scheduled to begin April 1.

He remains free on $500 cash bail with conditions that include no contact with anyone younger than 18. He also is barred from having digital media or access to the Internet.

His initial appearance in Androscoggin County Superior Court was scheduled for Thursday, but a judge granted the state’s motion to continue the case that morning before Shea’s name was called. Van Dyke agreed to the motion.

Robinson said the state’s need for more time was “not a reflection of whether the case is weak or strong.”

Meanwhile, organizers of the Lewiston Auburn Film Festival regrouped after Shea’s arrest to create the Emerge Film Festival, which debuted in June to positive reviews.

Shea was fired in March from his job as publisher of Lewiston Auburn Magazine.

On Thursday, Paul Roy, a spokesman for that magazine, said it is no longer in publication and its office has closed.

cwilliams@sunjournal.com

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