AUGUSTA — A man who spent almost 15 years in prison for gross sexual assault now is charged with possessing sexually explicit materials of young children.

Jeffrey S. Smith, 46, formerly of Augusta, pleaded not guilty Tuesday at his arraignment in Kennebec County Superior Court on a charge of possession of sexually explicit materials.

According to the indictment, which was issued by a grand jury in July 2011, Smith had material depicting a child under age 12 engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

The indictment says Smith had the material in Augusta on Sept. 1, 2010.

Smith was ordered held in lieu of $1,000 cash bail, and his next court hearing is set for April 2. Conditions of bail ban him from using a computer and from accessing the Internet.

On Nov. 7, 1994, Smith was convicted of gross sexual assault in Androscoggin County Superior Court and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with all but 12 years suspended, and six years of probation. He was sentenced to a concurrent 10 years in prison on a separate conviction on sexual exploitation of a minor, which is defined as persuading or compelling a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct “knowing or intending” that it will be photographed.

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Additional information on the original convictions was unavailable Wednesday.

On Dec. 29, 2010, Smith was ordered to serve 27 months of the suspended portion of his sentence for violating probation.

Smith is being held in the Kennebec County jail in Augusta. In a letter to the court, Smith said he had been jailed since September 2010 on a probation violation and was scheduled to be released from the Maine Correctional Institute in Windham on Dec. 10, 2012.

Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com


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