Winslow Man Pleads Guilty to Possession of Child Pornography

Contact: Jody Mullis
Assistant United States Attorney
Tel: (207) 945-0373

Bangor, Maine:  United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that Darrin Cates, 46, of Winslow, Maine, pleaded guilty today in U.S District Court to possession of child pornography.

According to court records and proceedings, between September 15, 2014, and October 30, 2014, the defendant used a computer and peer-to-peer software to make available for sharing videos of child pornography.  In January of 2015, a search warrant was executed at Cates’s residence.  Cates’s computer equipment was seized and examined and investigators found over 800 images and 290 videos of child pornography.

Cates faces up to twenty years in prison and a $250,000 fine.  He will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The investigation was conducted by the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations.