A former staffer to U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Dallas to 5 years in prison for receiving child pornography.
James “Dub” Maines Jr., 54, of Mesquite, Texas, pleaded guilty on Dec. 2, 2015, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade of the Northern District of Texas. Kinkeade also ordered Maines to five years of supervised release.
Maines was a deputy district director for Barton in the 6th Congressional District, which includes Arlington and portions of Tarrant County, from February 2006 until December 2014. In a statement provided to McClatchy, Barton said, “James Maines Jr. pled guilty to a federal criminal charge in December and today he was sentenced. I and my office cooperated with law enforcement officials throughout the investigation.”
According to the Justice Dept. release announcing the sentencing, Maines admitted in his plea that in November 2012 he “attempted to forward five child pornography images from his personal email account to his U.S. House of Representatives email account.”
“Maines admitted that he had received these and other child sexual pornography images via the Internet. Forensic analysis of Maines’ computer revealed that Maines had downloaded child pornography and other child exploitation images via the internet as early as 2004,” said the release.
Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas and Special Agent in Charge Thomas M. Class Sr. of the FBI’s Dallas Field Office made the announcement
The case was brought as part of the Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
Maria Recio: 202-383-6103, @maria_e_recio