ST. LOUIS (MO)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
By PETER SHINKLE Post-Dispatch
updated: 06/06/2003 09:17 PM
Former priest James Beine, whose arrest last year fueled the controversy over sex abuse in the Catholic Church, was sentenced Friday to nearly five years in prison for possessing child pornography.
U.S. District Judge Jean Hamilton gave Beine 57 months – the maximum term allowed under sentencing guidelines – and ordered him to pay a $10,000 fine.
Beine, 61, who legally changed his name to Mar James, was a St. Louis public school counselor last year when he was arrested on state charges of sexual misconduct involving a child.
While in jail on those charges, he asked another prisoner to send a letter asking a friend to destroy a compact disc containing the images of child pornography, prosecutors said. But the letter was turned over to authorities, who seized the disc from the friend’s home in Arnold. Beine was subsequently indicted on a federal count of possessing child pornography.
The disc, which he had marked “virus,” held more than 3,000 images of child pornography, assistant U.S. attorney Carrie Costantin said.
