Child porn case revealed

Lorrie Elmer Mecham, 67, of Mountain Home, was arrested Aug. 24 by Mountain Home police on a charge of possession of child pornography.

Mecham's arrest was revealed in a KTVB newscast Monday night. Sgt. Rick Viola, public relations specialist for the Mountain Home Police, told the Mountain Home News that the arrest had not been announced then largely because authorities were focusing on an unrelated alleged child abduction case at the time.

The investigation of Mecham had begun on Aug. 22 when his wife of seven years brought in a cooler of pornography to the police department that she had found under the couple's home. A review of the materials by detectives determined that some of it contained child pornography, and a subsequent search of the suspect's home found other child pornography materials, including some on his computer.

Possession of adult pornography is not illegal in Idaho, but child pornography is.

Authorities said there was no evidence from their investigation at this time that any other crimes had been committed.

Mecham has been held on three counts of possession of child pornography. His bond was set at $100,000.

Viola said authorities had not been aware that Mecham had a previous conviction for molesting a young girl in Georgia in the mid-1980s, but at that time neither Georgia nor Idaho had sex offender registration laws in place.

He moved to Mountain Home seven years ago, and because he had successfully completed his probation in Georgia before Idaho's law went into effect in 1993, he was not required to register as a sex offender.

"He just fell through the cracks," Viola said.