THORNDIKE - A science teacher at Mount View Junior High School was arrested Thursday, April 16, at his residence in Augusta, charged with possession of child pornography.
According to an affidavit on file at Fifth District Court in Belfast, Michael J. Douglas, 41, admitted to police that he had accessed child pornography over the Internet and that he had done so "over the course of years."
Police were reportedly first alerted to Douglas late last month by SAD 3 Superintendent Joe Mattos, who said Douglas was in possession of a school-issued laptop computer containing child pornography.
Trooper Corey Smith met with Mattos the next day, and in his affidavit Smith wrote that he was "provided with copies of information … which illustrated the allegation Michael Douglas used the computer to access Internet Web sites to view images of children under the age of 12 years engaged in sexual acts."
Smith said he was given Douglas' school-issued computer, which he turned over to the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit. Sgt. Glenn Lang of that office informed Smith the next day that "contraband" had been found on the Macintosh laptop computer.
The following day, Lang and Smith interviewed Douglas in Unity, where he allegedly admitted that over the course of years he had viewed child pornography on the Internet.
Douglas reportedly told the officers the sexually explicit images he had viewed depicted a range of individuals, from children as young as toddlers up to and including adult women.
Douglas reportedly told Lang and Smith that he had viewed the images on his school-issued laptop while at home, and that the same images found on the school-issued laptop could be found on his home computer.
After the interview, Lang and Smith followed Douglas to his residence in Augusta, where Douglas reportedly turned over a Dell computer to the officers and signed a consent form allowing the Computer Crimes Unit to analyze it.
Smith gave the computer to the Computer Crimes Unit in Vassalboro and within two weeks a technician with the Computer Crimes Unit told Smith she had found "evidence of suspected child pornography."
According to court paperwork, Douglas was arrested Thursday, April 16, in Augusta and taken to Kennebec County Jail. A handwritten note on the affidavit states that bail conditions include that Douglas is not to use or possess a computer, and that he may not use or have access to the Internet.
Douglas was scheduled to be transferred to the Waldo County Jail but jail personnel in Belfast said Douglas had made bail at Kennebec County Jail prior to the scheduled transfer.
Kennebec County Jail personnel said Douglas had left the jail Thursday after his $1,000 bail had been posted.
The Republican Journal Reporter Steve Fuller can be reached at 207-338-3333 or by e-mail at sfuller@villagesoup.com.
