James Dotson

A computer hard drive full of "bad stuff" could land a Poynette man in prison for 225 years.

James Gabriel Dotson, 30, is free on a $5,000 bond after making an initial appearance in Columbia County Circuit Court on Wednesday on 15 counts of felony possession of child pornography. Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 15 years and a fine of $100,000.

Employees at Northwoods Inc. of Portage found several surprises in February when Dotson took his computer to the business and requested his hard drive be wiped clean, according to a criminal complaint.

When employees hooked up a monitor to Dotson's computer, they discovered hundreds of files, including video and images, of child pornography, the complaint stated, including a continuously running screensaver displaying numerous images of child pornography, according to the complaint. The images had been downloaded over more than one year, the complaint stated.

Dotson allegedly told a Northwoods worker that there was "bad stuff" on his computer that had downloaded while he was searching the Internet, and that he could not prevent the downloads and wanted them removed from his hard drive, the complaint stated.

However, according to the complaint, because the files had been downloaded over a long period of time, Dotson's claim did not appear to be accurate.

At least 15 of the files contain images of prepubescent boys and girls, many of whom appeared younger than age 8, and some looked to be about 5 years old, according to the complaint.

It is highly unlikely any of the children in the pictures are from the area. An agent with the Division of Criminal Investigation, part of the state Department of Justice, received at least three positive hits from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, indicating the child victims were identified by law enforcement in past investigations.

Dotson is scheduled to appear in court Oct. 6.

sgreen@capitalnewspapers.com

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