BANGOR, Maine — A Brewer man with a history of sex crimes has pleaded guilty in federal court to possession of child pornography and still faces state charges connected to the alleged sexual abuse of two young girls.
Ronald Boersma, 38, was charged with the federal offense after police used a peer-to-peer file sharing program in February to download files containing more than 100 images of child pornography from an IP address connected to Boersma’s residence in Brewer, according to an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court.
A search warrant was subsequently executed at his residence in March when investigators with the Maine State Police seized his computer, which contained more images of child pornography. The defendant was interviewed and admitted that he had searched for and downloaded sexually explicit images via the internet and that his specific interest was in girls between 8 and 10 years of age, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Further investigation also uncovered evidence of sex abuse of two local girls, both under the age of 14, according to the Penobscot County district attorney’s office.
State police arrested Boersma on March 17, and he remains jailed pending resolution of both the federal and state cases against him.
Boersma pleaded guilty on Friday to the federal possession of child pornography charge being prosecuted in U.S. District Court by the U.S. attorney’s office. He faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine and will be sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office, according to a release issued by the U.S. attorney’s office on Friday.
The Penobscot County district attorney’s office is handling separately nine state charges against Boersma in connection with the alleged sexual abuse of the two girls — two counts of gross sexual assault, four counts of unlawful sexual contact and three counts of unlawful sexual touching. That case is still pending. He faces up to 30 years in prison on each of the more serious Class A charges of gross sexual assault.
Boersma previously was convicted of possessing child pornography in 2003. According to Bangor Daily News court listings, Boersma also was convicted in 2012 for failing to comply with the state’s sex offender registration act.