Police say that they traced child pornography over the Internet to Winger’s IP address at his home. They say that Winger cooperated with the search and admitted to “deliberately keeping” a hard drive containing the pornography.
Winger is charged with possessing sexually explicit images of children under 12, a Class C felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
Winger is a well-known export on labor and employment law who graduated magna cum laude from Yale with a degree in economics in 1972, and cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1975. He is the author of the “Maine Employer’s Handbook.” He was also chairman of the Human Resources Committee of the Maine Chamber of Commerce and Industry from 1993 to 1995. He is married with two grown children.
Winger has advised companies in the need to keep details behind terminations confidential to avoid defamation lawsuit. There is no such protection in a criminal case like this, of course. He is looking at a heavy potential sentence (even though he was given a low bail) and, even if acquitted, his main practice representing employers and businesses is unlikely to rebound from this case. That is assuming that he ever practices again, which seems a remote likelihood at this point. It is a considerable fall for a leading lawyer in this field, but these cases tend to be viewed as cut and dry by jurors. If he consented to the search, motions to suppress will be difficult. If the hard drive contains the images, these prosecutions have a very high conviction rate.
Source: Press Herald