ST. LOUIS (MO)
Post-Dispatch
Post-Dispatch
12/22/2003
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday overturned a defrocked Roman Catholic priest’s federal conviction of possessing child pornography and the ensuing prison sentence of nearly five years, ruling that investigators illegally seized key evidence against him.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s ruling does not affect the 12-year state prison sentence imposed in September on James Beine, also known as Mar James, for exposing himself to three boys while working as an elementary school counselor.
Siding with Beine, the 8th Circuit ruled that investigators lacked a warrant needed to seize 10 compact discs, later found to contain child pornography, from Beine’s friend Michael Laschober.
When approached at his Jefferson County home, Laschober gave investigators a sealed, brown envelope addressed to Mar James, saying he believed the enclosed discs entrusted to him by Beine contained church and financial records.
