BANGOR, Maine — An Augusta man who taught martial arts to children at a Lewiston karate studio has been charged in federal court with production of child pornography in connection with an alleged sexual assault on the son of a law enforcement officer.
Wade Robert Hoover, 34, originally was charged in state court with possession of sexually explicit materials after child pornography reportedly was found on his personal laptop. He was arrested Oct. 3 at the Augusta office of the Maine chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI, where he worked.
Investigators went to the NAMI office after an agent with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security who was monitoring the Ares computer network saw that 10 known videos of child pornography had been made available over that network to an IP address registered to NAMI, which provides support, education and advocacy to the mentally ill and their families.
No evidence of child pornography was found on the NAMI server, according to court documents. In Hoover’s office, however, police found a laptop computer on the desk next to the office desktop computer.
“On the monitor for the desktop computer in Hoover’s office, a slide show of photographs was playing,” the affidavit filed in federal court said. “The slide show depicted a variety of children doing martial arts. In the background was a banner that read ‘Koshow Warriors.’”
Hoover allegedly admitted to investigators that he used his personal laptop computer to log into the Ares network and download child pornography. During his discussions with agents, Hoover admitted that he “has a sexual preference for … boys between 12 and 14 years of age,” according to court documents.
He was charged Oct. 5 in U.S. District Court in Bangor after investigators interviewed him and examined the hard drives on his computers and a card from a camera. Police found still photographs and videos of Hoover allegedly sexually assaulting a boy who appeared to be between 10 and 13 and asleep, according to court documents.
Hoover told investigators that sometime this spring, he took the boy and another student from the karate studio to a cabin in the woods for two nights. On the laptop seized in the defendant’s office, police found a video of Hoover sexually assaulting the boy, according to the affidavit.
Police interviewed Hoover’s girlfriend, with whom he has an infant daughter, according to court documents. They also interviewed the woman’s father, who is a law enforcement officer and has an 11-year-old son.
The officer told police that his son had gone on an overnight camping trip with Hoover and returned the next day. The father said that when the boy returned home, he appeared to be intoxicated and was “clumsy and stumbling and couldn’t keep his balance.”
“After the overnight, [the father] noticed a marked change in the boy’s attitude toward Mr. Hoover,” the affidavit said. “Where before the overnight, the boy and Mr. Hoover were close friends, after the overnight the boy has been unwilling to spend any time with Mr. Hoover.”
Hoover’s first appearance in federal court in Bangor has not been set.
If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison. He also could be fined up to $250,000.
Information about whether he is facing charges in Kennebec County related to the alleged sexual assault was not available late Tuesday.
Bring back the death penalty? Sorry, this makes me so angry!!
The death penalty in Maine has been banned since 1887 so it is not coming back, ever. What this man did is horrific and it angers me as well but the death penalty, even if we had it would not prevent this sort of thing from happening.
The thought of death does not scare or prevent these people from committing their acts. Even in states that have the death penalty these sorts of sick acts happen.
ok.
Well he wouldn’t do it again if we had the death penalty!
Exactly!
And if we gave the death penalty to every single person convicted of drinking and driving they also would never do it again either.
Drunk drivers kill and destroy more families per year than child molesters so do you think we should kill them as well once convicted?
Nice move Kevin, putting child molesters and rapists on par with a drunk driver. Are you trolling or just amoral?
Sorry Yawning, but It seems you are the troll. Kevin’s point is compleatly valid. My family was almost destroyed by a drunk driver. I would suggest that having a child raped would have been equally as destructive. EQUALLY but not greater.
You should learn to spell, it is ( c o m p l e t e l y ) you and Kevin deserve a place together as I question how many cards are missing from the deck…….I had a child molested (she was sodomized at age 5) , and it did destroy my family – my daughter is still having serious problems due to it after twenty years….so thanks for your whiny input and self righteousness, brother troll.
You may be able to spell, but you can not read.
“My family was almost destroyed by a drunk driver. I would suggest that having a child raped would have been equally as destructive. EQUALLY but not greater.”
If you think that is whining or trolling, that is your misconception.
difference is intent with the drunk driver he had no idea he was going to hurt someone. Child molesters hurt way more people than drunk drivers by far.
That is pure BS
YES I DO
you make their point
Maybe but a molested child is more likely to be a molester then one who was not molested.
Excellent reply, Sky!
Who made you the authority on when and if the death penalty ever becomes legal in Maine?
Common sense did.
The only, repeat ONLY, we in Maine can do in cases such as this is to vote w/a decided “Yes” on any/all bond issues affecting the prisons that will keep the monsters incarcerated.
I get tired of hearing the ill-informed say, “Sure all they want is more of our money, so they can have big screen tvs, etc. etc.” Untrue. Those bonds will create more jails and prisons to keep these people out of society and therefore help to protect our young. More facilities=longer sentences.
then light him on fire and put him out with an ax
Might not stop it but it would sure slow it down.
BUT they would only be able to do it ONCE then DEAD
The death penalty is not a deterant, costs more than jail time, and has a nasty habit of getting the wrong person.
How can the death penalty be more costly than jail time? Oh that’s right, jail time would cost less than the electricity to complete the death penalty, when they only get 30 -60 days.
would you still be saying that, when you found out someone innocent of a crime, was executed????
Would you rather give him free room and board for 15 years? With all the Tea Partiers whining about helping the poor, nobody gripes about supporting animals like this for an extended period of time
too much child sex violence in the news today. it’s disgusting and heartbreaking, not to mention the numbers of “people in power” committing such crimes. it was a vent, but whatever. i have no solutions either. off with their you know whats? lol, just saying.
I’m glad that they caught this guy, but I find it extremely creepy that Homeland Security is lurking around computer networks. Talk about domestic surveillance. Whatever happened to probable cause?
They are searching public internet sites to obtain the probable cause evidence then get a warrant to search individual computers/networks.
That’s one way of looking at it. They are also monitoring the online activity of individuals at those sites, which seems to me to be an invasion of privacy, at the least.
You are just as sick as the perv. who did this to that child. This is how we caught the guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
An invasion of privacy is a very, very small price to pay when compared to the theft of a childhood and the resulting effects of sexual abuse that follow the child as he/she attempts to survive in adulthood.
Do you have something to hide? I have no problem with monitoring – I have nothing to hide…
It is a peer to peer network privacy is not an issue in this case. They are just scanning the bandwidth made public, waiting for the scum to surface.
totally ignorant comment, but then again, it gets some peeps riled up, you like that huh….TOO bad if it invades their privacy…..really, sometimes I wonder about your comments?
Online activity on a public site carries no reasonable expectation of privacy.
That alone is going to make for an interesting trial I think. I really wonder under what law the ARES computer was monitored. Seems a bit scary to me even if the owners of the network permitted the monitoring, it may be a violation if a user doesn’t know that.
Homeland Security has prevented many domestic terror plots by monitoring. Many LEOs catch sickos pretending to be young girls on the web to catch them preemptively. Not knowing the laws about this monitoring, I can call it entrapment or 1984-ish, but seems to be doing a lot of good for our country.
Ares is a P2P, or peer to peer network, When you join such a network, you set up a “public” folder and allow others to look at what you have put in there or downloaded into that folder. There can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in that situation.It is fairly simple to keep this folder empty but that defeats the purpose of the P2P.
This newbie has heard of those basics, but I’ve also heard that such organizations as the FBI Forensics can get a lot from a hard drive. Of course that would take a search warrant I think. I really don’t care to know. Thanks for the info, though! :)
Great point! I also like how you threw in the 1984 – not sure if too many people will understand that – what a great book and movie!
Tattle-tale kids and rats eating your face off! The book was so friggin’ disturbing that I couldn’t watch the movie! Even all these years later… :)
I hate that too, Bangor. I guess it’s a necessary evil in today’s society to catch up with these sickos. Since you and I don’t look at child pornography, guess we’re safe. I’m guessing they are looking for certain types of activity. HS couldn’t possibly monitor everyone’s site 24/7.
The slippery slope (to overuse an expression) is that Homeland Security decides what it will expose, and what it will not. If they are on a case dealing with possible terrorism, and their informant is a child molestor, they will not expose him/her.
J Edgar Hoover once said “Information is power” He had lots of it and kept it all to himself UNTIL it served his purpose to release it.
I trust our government as much as I trust this child predator. That’s not at all.
You need to join your friend in jail.
LOVE IT….
The patriot act
the Patriot Act is what happened
Just take him 100 miles out to sea in January.If he makes it back (which he won’t) let him go.
Just take him out back and shoot him. Crude, but sometimes deserved. Sicko.
Take out the trash.
What a horrible abuse of trust. What a poor excuse for a human being!
Just know he will serve many years in prison for his actions. This is a federal case and he will get a very lengthy sentence.
I don’t want to pay for that scum many many years in prison. Jails are over crowded and that’s why they get out much sooner only to commit the same crime again. The justice system fails society over and over and over again. Federal, State or otherwise. They are no longer effective. The only deterrent is to pay with one’s life.
prisons have a way of getting “even” with this type of person. Even hardened criminals have no use for this type.
27 days since his arrest. Is there a reason you are so late with news of this case?
Possibly law enforcement was using him to trap a few more pedophiles and wanted the space to do that before it became public?
it was reported that he was arrested when it happened, these are new Federal charges that have just be filed. I’ll bet more to come in this case as it develops.
Oh…just let him go on an overnight trip with the boys father..guessin that would take care of it
Forget that, he’s a karate master. Just shoot the POS.
kill him immediately after the guilty verdict
I hope when this case comes to trial the judge doesn’t forget how to mete out a sentence that fits the crime. To rape a child is horrific. To capture the moment on video in order to relive it or to use it for pornography only intensifies the need to keep this individual away from society for a good many years. There is no cure for this sort of person. The best we can hope for is to have distance put between him and youngsters.
the best we can hope for is not possible under maine state law.
This is a federal case. Maine state law will not apply.
Wrong – the state can also prosecute under state laws, they are separate persecutable offenses – and no, it isn’t double jeopardy; you don’t understand the law very well do you?
whatever.they won’t kill him either.
A slow painful death would be too good for this guy.
He won’t have an easy time in prison!
He is going to a federal prison and I doubt he will be placed in general population so his time most likely will be spent around those that have committed the same crime. His time is prison will not be a walk in the park but your vision of him being beat up and raped most likely will not happen.
Speaking from your incarceration experiences? You seem to know all about jail, just saying….
Predators of children need to be revealed anyway possible. When they are exposed, they need to be brought to justice. If the predator jumps off a bridge the case should still be ongoing to be sure any of those around the predator and may have knowledge of the crime, been an accomplice in the crime or worked to hide the crime are also brought to justice. It shouldn’t matter who they are.
So a man in a heterosexual relationship is molesting children. See, I post all the time that we should pass a state law forbidding heterosexuals from teaching in our public schools.
Why pass the law, there wont be many left if we stay at the pace we are going.
Pedophiles sicken me…they are incurable demented con artists who act like ravage animals. Why can’t we just give them all a one way ticket to a deserted island to hang out with one another.
I have that same sediment….put THEM on a remote Island, never to get off, with their own kind… grow their own food, raise their meat, hunt, build their own shelter, sew their clothes, build furniture, ect…… you get my point!! cruel and unusual punishment… YESSSS what they do to children is no different!!! I call this my idea of justice for those sick individuals!!!
We all know that he will probably get 2-3 mos
Did you read the story? If he’s convicted he faces a mandatory 15 years.
could suspend the sentence…most likely
Exactly which part of mandatory do you not understand. “man·da·to·ry (mnd-tôr, -tr)adj.1. Required or commanded by authority; obligatory: Attendance at the meeting is mandatory.” Get it?
Two in the hat.
Maine needs to have a mandatory minimum other than the petty suspended sentences being given for this type of crime. 2 yrs. all but 9 mos. suspended is a joke. Oh I forgot they also get a membership on the Pervs R Us registry. I say no more suspended sentences on sexual crimes. Along with that mandatory minimums on all sexual crimes against children. And yes, before some dumba## replies to me to do something about it, I will contact whomever I have to to see about getting these sentencing guidelines changed. If we can start initiatives to pass gay marriage, spend money the state doesn’t have, or anything else why can’t we protect the children of this state? Or atleast see to it that these pervs are dealt with like criminals. I’m guessing the federal charges were the result of the internet connection in this case.
No we don’t need mandatory sentences here. They don’t work. They create injustice as much as they do justice. There are guidelines and when you think a judge is soft, there is usually a good reason for it. Mandatory sentences are merely about making people like you feel good but they do nothing for the victim or society.
Wow you ar really putting yourself out there. get ready for the rotten tomatoes. I gave you the like. I couldn’t have said it better, BUT this crime does have a mandatory minimum (if tried in Federal Court) it is 15 years.
I’m getting what I expected. My problem is that I believe in justice, not vengence.
hahaha..you believe in justice.. how would you know, if it is not a reality?
So because we don’t have it now we shouldn’t strive for it?
Wow that is a silly comment. They would keep future victims safer longer. The research shows, the chances of them hurting a child again are very high.
You’re entitled to your opinion. However, the current sentencing guidelines don’t seem to be much of a deterrent. By your logic one could assume that you don’t think punishing pedophiles is necessary at all. After all, as far as the current guidelines go, (in your words) “they do nothing for the victim or society”.
Do you have a better suggestion that is realistic, or did you just reply to my comment to start a cotroversy?
If you could assume that I don’t think punishing pedophiles is necessary at all from my statement then that’s because you want to assume that. It’s absurd of course. All I’m saying is that mandatory sentences do not work. Judges who hear the evidence, who have knowledge of the case are far more capable of setting the right sentence than frankly the legislature who only responds to public fear. Letgislatures should set guidelines and the judges do their jobs from there.
Without mandatory sentences in child sexual abuse cases, a perpetrator could find him/her self with nothing but the traditional slap on the wrist sentence. Don’t make the mistake, maineiac, of thinking that all judges are capable of setting the right sentence.
Even a cursory read of the daily newspaper shows how little we value our children in this state…when we repeatedly see 30, 60 and /or 90 day sentences.
Maine, thanks to former DA David Crook and former Rep. Rith Joseph has a Victim Impact Statement law, however, which allows parents input prior to sentencing. Quite often, that alone is what makes a difference between token sentences and longer ones.
what is your solution?
I wish I had one, I don’t but I have no doubt that mandatory sentencing is not the answer. I would like see a commission on the sentencing problem where the answer is derived, not though emotion, but logic and reason for what is best for society, the victim and yes, even the perpetrator.
WELL SAID..
Poor guy was born that way. Otherwise, he’s a model citizen. His kind deserve equal rights, too. Well?
Sarcasm for those who don’t know it…
public hanging is too good for this sick pervert
If my son came home acting drunk and not wanting to spend time with the person he went with anymore I would do some looking into this person whether it was my daughters husband or not! And is call the police even if I was a cop! What a drop the ball dad! And cop
ABSOLUTELY beat up on the one cop in the country who does NOT jump to conclusions.
I love all this “I would have done,” and “If this was my son” stuff.
The child was raped by a trusted friend. You have NO IDEA what you would do until this happens to you. Do you ever look at your husband, father, brother, or son and think to yourself “This guy’s a potential rapist, better keep my eye on him.” I seriously hope none of your families ever have to endure this.
Watch it Bangorian, Tux Katz is on a personal self-righteous crusade and now you’r e his target.
Hang him.
That man is SICK!!! Put him in jail and let the inmates take CARE of him, just like he took care of the kids>
Give him the old indian treatment from a long time ago. Take him out in the desert, stake him out to four stakes, with wet rawhide, and let him dry out in the sun.
These kind of people do not belong in the human race, and, for our own preservation, we have to take a hard stand on this, anytime we find it! He should no longer be allowed to roam wherever and do whatever. Even animals do not do this to their young!
That’s exactly what they are saying! Gay does not equal pedophile!
This makes me so sick and what makes it more sick that these pigs need to drug their victims! Just throw all these pigs into one cell and let them fend for themselves and let our children grow up to have a normal childhood. Its not fair for any child to grow up being a victim of a crime such as this!
Another sick SOB that preys on the children!—-As I have said for years, if you condone this, then you are every bit as sick as the perverts committing these acts!!
The macho comments below are not helpful or amusing. People trying to show how far from civilization we are have succeeded.
This man needs to be placed where he can no longer hurt children, but killing him, torturing him, or making laws which remove constitutional protections from all in our society are not healthy community responses.
Pedophiles abuse children in a quest for power. Don’t give them more by changing our society due to his deeds.
Tux, your atitude of mercy for this guy is noble, but you cant blame these people for wanting retribution against someone so twisted perverted that they attack and ruin the lives of the most vulnerable among us, and our most cherished citizens, our innocent children. This guy FORFEITED his constitutional rights when he recorded himself raping a drugged 13 year boy. Locking him up for a few years will not restore this childs innocence.
Proves a point. Men who are attracted to children are also attracted to adult females not adult males. Thus making them heterosexual pedophiles. This being said I hope they remove his ability to function sexually.
Hoover admitted that he “has a sexual preference for … boys between 12 and 14 years of age,” according to court documents.
Male on male sex is homosexuality FYI
VOTE NO ON 1!
Oh, you’re just silly. Even if you vote yes on 1, adult males and 12 year old boys still can’t get married. You win either way!
This has nothing to do with question 1.
Kindly educate yourself before you go to the polls. There is a distinct difference between pedophilia and homosexuality. Ignorance is no way to go through life. I don’t know where you get your information, but please base your vote on facts, not untruths.
Sick sick sick. I am so glad that was not my kids because I know deep down I would be in jail and rightly so . But he would not be in jail.
Why would you be in Jail? You can do things the smart way or the dumb way. Remember in business and in other aspects of life “those that fail to plan should plan to fail”. We are on the same page.
I get to emotional and do not always think rational. Revenge is a dish bet served cold but that time you might have time to think.
Pitiful excuse for a human being! Where’s the loser’s picture so everyone can see him.
Parents should always be cautious of adults spending time overnight with their young children. Period. If you can’t go with your child, they shouldn’t be allowed to go either. Even more so suspicious is one-on-one overnight encounters between your children and adults (even if they are trusted adults.)
$250,000 fine and 30 years in jail is not nearly enough.
I wonder what drives people like Hoover to be a pedophile. Maybe if we understood that we could stop a few like him before they molest and save a few children from the pain and hurt they must feel. All these demands for justice or vengeance, and all theses explanations about what will or should happen to Hoover, do absolutely nothing for the children who have been and will be hurt by pedophiles. We act all “holier than thou” in these comments and then go about our lives as if we had offered some real benefit to our society.
This guy was in a position of trust and looked at as an authority figure and mentor by the children he instructed. I had two sons that attended classes at the Dojo he was in prior to getting his own studio. While we never sent our kids off on any overnight trips abundance of precaution by their mother, good call MOM) and they both assure me nothing ever happened, they are both still shaken that a person they trusted and who taught honor and respect and instilled good character in them as kids is now shown to be a monster. It has shaken their trust and faith in the system they believed in. To some extent it effects even kids he did not molest through his casual acquaintance with them and others.
“Maines Sexual Assault in Prison” double the national average…
i hope he meets bubba!
Should have saved the taxpayers by doing the “Penobscot Narrows Shuffle.”
How devastating for this child and his family……………….no punishment is going to be enough for what this predator has done to this child and probably others. So sad this child put himself into this man’s trust and was forever mentally affected………………very sad and heartbreaking………….the perpetrator would still be doing this if he hadn’t gotten caught…..I wish this young man all the best in his recovery……..