AUGUSTA — A city man has been arrested on child pornography charges, state police said today.

Wade Hoover, 34, was arrested at the Augusta offices of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where he is a staff member, according to state police spokesman Steve McCausland.

Police said Hoover also owns and operates a martial arts studio in Lewiston, where he teaches children as young as 3 years old, according to his website.

“Members of the State Police Computer Crimes Unit and the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency received a tip and went to Hoover’s Augusta office this morning,” McCausland said in a news release. “They found that he was using a personal computer to distribute child porn over the agency’s Internet service.”

Investigators found “dozens of images of child porn on his computer and believe at least one of the children is from Maine,” McCausland said.

Police charged Hoover with possessing sexually explicit material and taken to the Kennebec County jail. 

Officials at the National Alliance on Mental Illness have cooperated with the investigation and told investigators had no idea their Internet connection were being used to distribute child porn, McCausland said.

Hoover also operates the Kosho Warrior’s Martial Arts studio and United Martial Arts Academy in Lewiston, and is a former instructor at the United Martial Arts Academy in Augusta.

Investigators expect to file more charges after analyzing Hoover’s computer, McCausland said.

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