Masontown man pleads no contest to child pornography charges
A Masontown man accused of possessing and distributing child pornography pleaded no contest to those charges in Fayette County Court on Friday.
Curtis Jones, 52, who was evaluated by the state Sexual Offenders Assessment Board and determined not to be a sexually violent predator, attempted previously to plead guilty, according to his attorney Brian Salisbury, but a judge rejected it because the terms of the plea agreement were not severe enough.
In exchange for pleading no contest, Jones will be sentenced to 15 to 30 months in jail, which Salisbury noted is in the standard range of sentencing guidelines.
“It all stems from file-sharing,” Salisbury told President Judge John F. Wagner Jr. “Mr. Jones was unaware this was on his computer.”
Assistant District Attorney Meghann Mikluscak said, “The commonwealth alleges he may have put in search terms that were inappropriate.”
She said there were 10 video files found on Jones’ computer depicting children in sexual situations, but she added that Jones denied having sexual interest in children.
Four of those files were then shared from Jones’ computer, although he denied sharing them intentionally.
Wagner asked Jones if he remembered searching for child pornography or if he was aware the files were on his computer, and Jones said no to both.
In order to plead no contest, however, Wagner explained that Jones was required to admit some culpability.
Salisbury said, “Mr. Jones takes responsibility that it was his computer and those things were found on his computer.”
Jones will be sentenced before Wagner on May 12 at 9:30 a.m.