By Janice Morse
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON - A Middletown teen was convicted Tuesday of four charges in Butler County's first case of a juvenile caught possessing pornographic images of minors.

Juvenile Court Judge David Niehaus found the boy guilty of four counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance, less serious than the pandering obscenity charges he had faced.

The case dates to November, when a Franklin couple reported finding nude images on a computer the teen had traded for their truck. Authorities confiscated the computer's hard drive and investigated its contents, leading to the charges early this year. The boy was 17 at the time.

His lawyer, Bradley Carmella, said the judge "didn't find him guilty of purposely downloading the images." Instead, the judge convicted him of "possessing nude pictures of kids that weren't his," a lesser offense, Carmella said.

The teen's sentencing is set for Aug. 29. Now 18, the teen could be sentenced to six months on each charge or he could be held in a juvenile facility until his 21st birthday, Carmella said.

The Enquirer is not identifying him because he was a minor at the time of the offense.

Assistant Prosecutor Greg Stephens said the case shows that the county will aggressively pursue pornography cases, no matter what the age of the offender.

E-mail jmorse@enquirer.com