BANGOR, Maine — A former basketball star who was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame last month has been indicted on a child pornography charge.
The Penobscot County grand jury Wednesday indicted Dana Wilson, 61, of Brewer on a charge of possession of sexually explicit material, a Class C crime.
An arraignment date has not been set.
The investigation into Wilson began in February 2011, according to Brewer police Detective Sgt. Jay Munson.
“We found no evidence of any local children or what appears to be local children,” he said Wednesday after the grand jury handed up indictments.
Wilson has a disc jockey business and has provided music for dances sponsored by Brewer Parks and Recreation and area schools for many years, Munson said.
Ken Hanscom, director of Brewer Parks and Recreation, said Wednesday that Wilson has provided music for the last 20 years for the annual father-daughter dance and for the last five years for the street dance that is part of the city’s Brewer Days celebration in September.
The videos found on Wilson’s computer showed adult men having sex with girls under the age of 12, according to Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County. Monitoring of child pornography sites by law enforcement officials outside of Maine led to an Internet address owned by Wilson, the prosecutor said.
A message left at Wilson’s home was not immediately returned, according to The Associated Press.
Wilson was inducted into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame for his basketball feats at Bangor’s Husson College, where he graduated in 1974. The hall of fame says Wilson averaged nearly 35 points a game his senior year, best among all NCAA Division III schools that year.
If convicted, Wilson faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $5,000. He also would be required to register as a sex offender for 10 years and could be prevented from spending time with minors as a DJ if convicted.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Sport’s Hall of Famer + child pornography = one big mess for Mr. Wilson…..C’mon man….61 years old…..Crazy…..
0=0=0=0
Maybe he can be in the same cell as Sandusky….they could discuss ole times
Didn’t he also used to DJ local grade school dances?
Yes
Not sure what the end result of this will be but I honestly believe in the phrase “where there is smoke there is fire”. Maybe he has done more than just look in the past and there will be some present day adults speaking out here in the future.
Know this man…Know his folks…Shocked…Never was a problem to society in the past, and always worked hard…Let’s get all the facts out…Not sure what to think right now…I’m keeping an open mind til the “Fat Lady” sings.
Innocent until proven guilty!
I guess you missed the memo….anyone whose name and photo are published in the BDN is guilty of all charges…all you have to do is keep reading the comment section to know we could save millions of dollars every year by skipping everything after the arrest and just send the person right to prison.
BDN published that he was indicted, 99.9999% of the time the indicted are convicted.
Do you understand the indictment process and who gets to present evidence?
An indictment is a review of potential evidence presented by the DA to a panel of citizens that review the evidence and decide that there is enough evidence to issue an indictment. The decision does not need to be unanimous and only needs a simple majority for the case to go to trial. Only the DA presents evidence and no “defense” attorney or defendant is present during the DA presentation. There is no Judge to rule what evidence is admissible or excluded.
Just because an indictment has been issued does not mean the person is guilty. Just last week there was a case of a man in Hancock County that was found innocent of sexual abuse of a minor. And let’s not forget the most famous not guilty verdict in recent memory….”if the glove doesn’t fit you must acquit” O.J.Simpson trial back in the 1990s.
But you do admit that there is evidence implicating him? Maybe the videos got on his computer by magic but they did find porn videos with children on his computer. And just because the “loaded” jury found OJ not guilty does not mean that he was not guilty, surely even you know that.
“But you do admit that there is evidence implicating him?”
Admit? Since I didn’t review the evidence I don’t know what they found on his computer. What I am sure of is a majority of the grand jury found sufficient facts to issue an indictment.
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“Maybe the videos got on his computer by magic but they did find porn videos with children on his computer.”
Is your computer always 100% of the time under your custody and control and only used by you or do other people use it from time to time? If it isn’t you might want to look and see what might be loaded without your knowledge. Not saying that is the case here but seriously, are you willing to convict without know the facts of the case?
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“And just because the “loaded” jury found OJ not guilty does not mean that he was not guilty, surely even you know that.”
“loaded”??? Since the defense AND the DA/AG have to agree on each and every jury member it is pretty hard to claim that a jury is “loaded”. And actually when a jury returns a “not guilty” verdict that is exactly what it means.
Guess there must not have been enough evidence to indict the 3 kids that pushed Ralph Greenleaf to his death huh? Does the DA have a role in how hard he/she opts to push the indictment or is it just evidence speaking?
That’s right, the evidence presented did not convince a simple majority of the seated Grand Jury that an indictment should be returned in the Greenleaf case.
The DA/AG present the evidence and the Grand Jury makes a decision based on the evidence.
Would you prefer pitchforks and mob rule?
Who said anything about pitchforks and mob rule? I simply asked a question to a poster that appeared to have some answers. Obviously not mature enough to give a simple answer without taking some offense….whatever.
Excuse me but I answered your question in a mature manner. You implied in your post that the DA/AG didn’t present or withheld evidence or some how manipulated the Grand Jury process to obtain a “no bill” in the Greeleaf case.
My “pitchfork” and “mob rule” comment reflects the opposite of the Grand Jury process. You either agree with the process or you don’t. There is no middle ground in this process.
Okay, so now we know for sure that you cannot be real no matter what. Have a nice life in your make believe world of being an attorney where nothing is really ever real unless someone can prove it to you a billion different ways so that even your mind is settled that it is what it is. How does an attorney ever really know that someone died?
That’s right entitled….I live in an alternate universe where up is down and down is up.
Grand Jury and Indictments –
A) I wasn’t on the Grand Jury.
B) I didn’t review the evidence.
C) The Grand Jury found sufficient facts to issue an indictment.
D) An indictment is not a “ruling” on guilt or innocence.
Jury’s –
A) Jury’s rule on the evidence presented in court.
B) When they rule a person guilty they are guilty. The defendant can appeal but very, very few convictions are reversed on appeal.
C) When they rule a person innocent they are innocent. The defendant cannot be retired on the same charge again.
D) You can disagree with a juries decision all you want but it doesn’t change the verdict.
Death –
I have seen more than my fair share of dead bodies and I can say this without qualification “I’ve seen dead and that’s dead”.
89% is the percentage
I doubt it’s even that high
Not when the media gets ahold of a story. He is now guilty until proven innocent, and even then he will NOW never be truly innocent in the court of public opinion. Just another reason why no information on court cases should be made public until a plea deal or a verdict is reached.
We never really know someone, look how Bob Carlton fooled everyone in the Bangor area to thinking he was a Rev. So what if he worked hard and was never a problem in society. He had a dark side that no one knew about.
I wonder if Amway is keeping an open mind about this.
Why bother post anything, true or untrue, fact or fiction if it all gets sqaushed. Oh well.
Do that keep an open mind.. only about your friends though. OK.. Convict the homeless though for stealing food OK??.. you hate them worthless people don’t you??? I would bet on it..
It is always a shock when we know the person or even when we don’t know them but the fact is these people that are into porn whether it be adult porn or child porn they have been addicted to it for a long time but with these days of the internet its easier to access porn and find anything that suits their sick taste. So, more and more people are going to be found out and this is what happened to this guy.
What is it with these big time athletes? Are sports stars more important than children? Jerry Sandusky will have a long time to think about it.
First member inducted to the Maine Sports Hall of Shame…congrats!!!
Wth is wrong with people this it top teir around here come on people anything internet is tracked
Would “local children” being involved make it better or worse? That statement strikes me as asinine.
The worst part of the victimization that occurs in connection with this sort of thing is the actual production of the materials. The fact that these were not local kids suggests he probably wasn’t involved in the actual production of the material, but rather acquired it from someone else.
I wasn’t thinking in that way, so both of you who gave reasons have changed my mind about it. Thanks.
Since he was a community figure, and one who was a DJ at children’s dances, and videotaped middle school/high school sports games etc., people are probably worried that kids he was around could have been abused. I think the fact that they mention no one local appears to be involved just tries to set minds at ease for parents and others who may worry that their children could have been affected.
Why does this headline read “indicted on porn charge” and not indicted on child porn charge?
I was wondering the same thing JustME. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that once again, because of someones “connections”, this whole story will be handled differently. P.S~ So will the comment section ;)
The comment section? I would say. You got that right big time. There once was a man that lived on West Broadway that had some similar issues, pretty popluar guy with some big name neighbors and friends. His perverted ways never made it to the press even though those in the know know exactly who it was and what his issue was. Coverups at the local level.
This comment will probably be deleted even though it doesn’t violate the “rules”.
I know this man and never got a good feeling from him, my daughter always told me he made her feel creepy. We never stayed out if he was around.
That’s funny, another poster here said the exact opposite thing. So who is lying?
I would say neither of them are lying.Because how you feel about a person is your own perspective.
Reason in the wilderness.
You should trust your little inner voice, about everyone has one, too many don’t listen to it.
Doesn’t mean anyone is lying , it means someone trusted their instincts and someone didn’t.
that’s a really nice thing to be posting, if you knew him so well i doubt you would be talking like this about him.
So how the heck does this work getting caught? People are being watched on their own computers in their home and don’t even know it? Big brother watching all the time. I’m not saying this is right but makes you wonder what you can do these days. This is entrapment.
Entrapment? Did law enforcement agents send him kiddie porn and force him to allegedly watch it? The kiddie porn that is viewed on people’s “own” computers is transmitted over cables they don’t own. Neither do they own the root servers; those are owned by corporations, public institutions and government agencies who host root servers as a public service. So people can be prosecuted for watching kiddie porn on their “own” computers? Shocker.
Well then don’t you think law enforcement should go after the porn stars and close down the sites? If they weren’t there to watch then people wouldn’t get caught!
We are talking about the rape and sexual exploitation for profit of children under the age of 12. That is quite different from porn stars who are of legal age. Do you see the difference?
if he went to a website and the government got a court order they can get the IP addys of who has been there and trace them back to the computer.
Its the Patriot Act!!!! Gives the Govt. the right to look at anyone. Then refer to the correct authorities!
Let them look, is what I say! If they didn’t, child porn would get out of control. I’m not ashamed at anything I look at online, and if someone has nothing to be worried about but know that monitoring is helping to crack down on the sickos somewhere, let em have it.
what a waste of taxpayers money.
What a stupid waste of taxpayers money. Absolutely stupid and ridiculous
I suppose you’ll sign up your 12 year kids or grandkids to be in the films he downloads, right?
Seeing he was good friends with Betsy Webbs father you may be right. The indictment will go away…
They modified the story and removed that part.
I’m sure the fourm watch person will remove this comment also..
But your right anyway, its a waste of money to charge a Maine hall of famer for anything.
Count on it. 3 of mine have been pulled and none of them violated any “rules”.
obamas fault next teapeeres
I made fun of the hall of fame awards when they were in the paper. as self appointed, self awarding vain people trying to maintain their standings in Maine.
well obviously you were in the band..
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/05/20/sports/eight-new-maine-sports-hall-inductees-shared-love-of-the-game/ nice group picture of the special people.
You can’t get much lower than child porn. Period.
I always suspected this would happen. Never trusted him.
Normally i would be one of those that jump on the bandwagon for this guy’s head, but i have met Mr. Wilson, and honestly would be shocked if this came down as the total case. One thing makes me curious about how the police go after internet people these days. I know that even when i am on facebook playing my Farmville and games, i always get these pop-ups and spam and malware that ends up on my computer. I clean it all the time but i dont really have a what is on there or not. I would certainly not consider myself computer savy. I still have no clue how someone takes a picture and then puts that picture on facebook. I guess my question is, could terrible pics of this type be put on a computer by hitting the wrong email, download or pop-up? Maybe some of you that actually know something about computers could tell me. Obviously if there are 1,000 of pics of underage kids with older men, than he is guilty, but i am still gonna wait for the jury or courts to decide.
“The videos found on Wilson’s computer showed adult men having sex with girls under the age of 12, according to Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County.”
Notice it doesn’t say “websites visited”. Instead, it says “videos found”. That suggests downloading. That suggests intent and guilt.
thanks for clarifying Bush, i guess i didnt really get that from that statement. That does make perfect sense. Again, i am kinda a bonehead when it comes to puters…but at least i do know how to turn it on and get to Facebook so i can play my Farmville..LOL
I have to say I am very shocked by this especially since he was suppose to DJ my wedding
Why cancel??? A sports hall of Fame DJ at your wedding sounds cool !!!!
perhaps because if he is convicted he can not do anyways because I have over 10 children going to be there
Nobody believed that Jerry Sandusky at Penn State was doing those nasty things to children, either.
Become a sports star, make a lot of money, manage a middle class lifestyle, and people will not understand that like Bob Carlson and others, this man had a secret life.
Jeff col i don’t consider myself an expert although I do shop online pay bills and do fb upload pics etc but this I would think is a lot more serious than a pop up if you click on some small thumb mail pic of scantily clad lady im sure you will get more but you still have to click a button to down load and it ain’t gonna be free you will have to pay its huge business world wide one kid in California was gettin money deposited in a spay pal account set up for him just to take hi shirt off then it went down hill from there they even set up an apartment for him down the street from his house where I’d would go so his mom wouldn’t catch on all set up by who knows some where in world all online he never met them
The internet unfortunately has made pornography to accessible and too anonymous… it was different when you would have to deal with someone else to access it like in a store or at a movie theater, that simple act kept most people out of trouble. Those days are gone. I seriously doubt Mr Wilson would ever harm or sexually assault any youth, but alone & in the privacy of his own home, may have given in to a darker impulse. This decision has ruined his life. I guess I feel some compassion for the guy.
One thing’s for sure – until he straightens this all out, he’d be best served laying low (and not DJ’ing in public, like he did last night at “My Fork”). One drunk with a head of steam, and there could be blood on the dancefloor! Apparently he claims to be “innocent of all charges.”
Where?
…
XWatching consenting adults do anything won’t get you in trouble even if it is porn anything to do with minors will or if there is a position of power held even if they aren’t a minor
II hope so for him but it better not be his computer or his credit cards used
The thing that gets me, is the guys actually in the video will probably never face punishment.
TThat’s because most of it is made off shore
Innocent to proven guilty.
Why are they giving his ppg stats from Husson College in 1974? Did that have any bearing on this case? I wonder what most sexual offenders point per game averages were? Bob Carlson seemed like more of a low post player “grinder”. May be they will post his rebounds per game?
What a joke.