AUGUSTA, Maine — A local man serving a 40-year federal sentence on child pornography charges pleaded guilty Monday at the Capital Judicial Center t o four counts of gross sexual assault involving two boys under the age of 12.
Wade Robert Hoover, 38, is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 27 in two separate cases, according to Paul Cavanaugh, assistant district attorney for Kennebec and Somerset counties.
Cavanaugh said there is no agreement with Hoover concerning what sentences the prosecutor will recommend, but his office will dismiss nine other counts at the sentencings. Hoover faces up to life in state prison on the gross sexual assault charges because of the ages of his victims.
The prosecutor said Tuesday that he did not know what sentences he would recommend but wanted to make sure Hoover’s state sentences kept him behind bars once he’s completed his federal sentence.
Hoover was sentenced in July 2013 in U.S. District Court to 40 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to one count each of production of child pornography and possession of child pornography.
U.S. District Judge John Woodcock imposed the maximum sentences on each count and ordered Hoover to serve them consecutively, according to a previously published report. Hoover faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison on the production charge and up to 10 years in prison on the possession charge.
“It is hard for me to find words to describe your conduct in this case because your conduct is simply unspeakable,” Woodcock said in imposing the sentence. “Not only did you violate the law, you violated the most basic moral code in society. You preyed upon young boys when they were vulnerable.”
Hoover pleaded guilty to the federal charges in February when he admitted that he sexually assaulted two boys under the age of 12 who took karate lessons from him at his Lewiston studio, and recorded the assaults. He did not share the images on the Internet, according to court documents.
The state case was delayed when Hoover sought to dismiss the indictments for gross sexual assault in Kennebec and Somerset counties under the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court in August unanimously rejected the argument.