Alexandria man on probation for child porn charges convicted again

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (FOX 5 DC) - An Alexandria man was convicted for a second time for possessing child pornography. 

According to court records, James Clawson, Sr., 58, was previously convicted of distribution of child pornography in 2009 after law enforcement learned that he was an administrator for an online forum dedicated to trafficking child sexual abuse material.

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On Thursday, Aug. 26, Clawson was convicted on charges of possessing child pornography.

"The evidence at trial demonstrated that the defendant’s prior conviction for distributing child pornography, unfortunately, did not deter him from continuing to seek out such heartbreaking and illegal images," said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. 

Prosecutors said in July 2019, while Clawson was on supervised release for his previous charge, his probation officer found that he had been hiding a laptop computer and multiple thumb drives in a hidden compartment in his home.

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Evidence showed that Clawson had been using the laptop to download images and videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and then stored those images on one of his thumb drives. Officials say he even sorted the images on his thumb drive and assigned them files names based on the specific sexual acts they depicted. 

Clawson faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. His sentencing is set for Dec. 1, 2021.