Former priest pleads innocent to porn charge

ST. LOUIS -- James Beine, a former St. Louis-area priest and school counselor, has pleaded innocent to a federal charge that he possessed child pornography on computer disks.

Beine, 61, entered the plea Wednesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Ann Medler scheduled a hearing for today on the prosecution's request that Beine, who changed his name to Mar James when he worked in the schools, be held without bail pending trial. Defense attorney James Martin said he will argue that Beine is not a flight risk if freed on bond. No trial date has been set.

Beine had been set to go to trial soon in St. Louis Circuit Court for allegedly exposing himself to three boys when he had worked as a counselor at Patrick Henry School in St. Louis. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Carrie Costantin said she and Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce agreed that Beine should be tried on the federal charge first.

Beine had spent about six months in state custody before his transfer Wednesday to federal custody.

The federal charge in St. Louis was filed in April. Authorities allege Beine possessed thousands of pornographic images of children on computer disks.

Beine faces a similar charge in U.S. District Court in East St. Louis, Ill. Prosecutors allege he had child pornography at a home in Highland, Ill., where he lived part of the time and where he was arrested March 28.

Beine was dismissed from the Roman Catholic priesthood in 1977 over allegations of sexual abuse. The St. Louis Archdiocese settled two suits for $110,000 in the mid-1990s. The suits alleged Beine sexually abused boys more than 30 years ago.

For more than a decade, he was a counselor at elementary schools in St. Louis. He resigned shortly before the state charges were issued in March.