AUGUSTA — A city man already awaiting a jail sentence for creating child pornography has been charged with a dozen new counts of sexually assaulting a boy after authorities said they analyzed his computer.

Wade Robert Hoover, 35, a martial arts instructor, is accused in the new indictment of 12 instances of gross sexual assault on a boy in Augusta between Dec. 11, 2008, and Feb. 13, 2010. A Kennebec County grand jury added the charges even as Hoover awaits sentencing later this month in federal court on the child pornography charges.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said the boy connected to the new sexual assault charges was 10 to 11 years old during at the time and that the offenses occurred in Hoover’s Augusta apartment.

Hoover, who has been in custody since October, pleaded guilty Feb. 5 in U.S. District Court in Bangor to production and possession of child pornography.

He also was indicted in March in Somerset County on one count of gross sexual assault against a boy under the age of 12 in an incident that occurred in April 2012 in The Forks, a remote area in Somerset County.

Maloney said the victim in that case is a different boy than the one identified in the Augusta charges.

Hoover was owner and chief instructor at Koshowarrior’s Martial Arts and the United Martial Arts academies in Lewiston, where he taught children as young as age 3, according to Maine State Police. Maloney said the victim in the Kennebec County charges is not from Augusta.

“It was one of his martial arts students, and he knew him outside of that,” she said.

Federal authorities used search warrants on several dates in October to seize items from Hoover’s Augusta home and from the Koshowarrior studio. Among the items collected, according to court documents, were a DVD/CD containing account data, video and still cameras, memory cards, external hard drives for computers, documents and prescription bottles.

Maloney, noting that it’s a federal crime to possess and produce child pornography, said her office decided to charge Hoover with the state crime of sexually molesting two children.

“We found out about it the same way we found out it happened with the boy in The Forks — Maine State Police looking through the videos on his computer,” Maloney said.

Maloney praised the efforts of the investigators working in the State Police Computer Crimes Division. “For them to uncover all the metadata on the pictures to determine the dates when it occurred, it was tremendous,” she said.

In February, Hoover pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bangor to production and possession of child pornography. He faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years for the production conviction. The possession conviction carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Maloney has said she is seeking consecutive sentences on the state charges.

State charges of gross sexual assault each carry a maximum prison term of 30 years.

A federal court affidavit by William Hoyt, a special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, describes how Hoover created some video images.

Hoover told investigators that in early June he took two children who were students at his martial arts studio for two nights to a cabin in The Forks Plantation and took pictures and video of himself sexually abusing an 11-year-old boy who had been given sleep medication. Investigators said the boy’s parents noted he appeared to be under the influence of a substance when he arrived home.

Hoover told investigators he brought his medication for sleep and anxiety to the cabin.

Another video taken from Hoover’s computer shows Hoover and an unidentified man sexually assaulting another young boy, Hoyt’s affidavit says.

Hoover told investigators that “he has a sexual preference for smooth chubby boys between 12 and 14 years of age.”

Hoover also told investigators that he used his personal laptop to download child pornography via the network at the Bangor Street office of the National Alliance on Mental Illness Maine, where he worked. At that time, Hoover was charged with possession of sexually explicit materials of minors under age 12, a felony offense carrying a five-year maximum sentence.

However, that charge was later dismissed in favor of the federal charges, where convictions carried longer sentences.

Hoover’s sentencing in the federal case is set for 10 a.m. June 26 in Bangor. He is represented there by attorney Virginia Villa.

In Somerset County, Hoover’s attorney is Peter Barnett, and the next hearing in that case is set for July 2. Barnett did not return a call Tuesday seeking comment.

No defense attorney is listed as representing Hoover in the latest charges. He is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges at 10 a.m. June 25 in Kennebec County Superior Court.

Betty Adams — 621-5631
badams@centralmaine.com