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Loera appears in court, no plea entered yet in child porn case

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Jason Loera, the Democratic consultant facing child pornography charges and accused by federal agents of taking part in an alleged hacking scandal involving the email account of Gov. Susana Martinez, appeared in U.S. District Court in Albuquerque on Tuesday .

Loera did not enter a plea as he answered a short series of questions from District Court Judge Alan C. Torgerson, who allowed Loera to continue to remain free under supervised release in the Los Angeles area, where Loera has been living.

FACING 5-20 YEARS: Democratic Party consultant Jason Loera, shown here in a photo from the Flickr, has been arrested on federal child pornography charges.

FACING 5-20 YEARS: Democratic Party consultant Jason Loera, shown here in a photo from the Flickr, has been arrested on federal child pornography charges.

Tuesday’s hearing dealt strictly with the counts that allege receiving and possessing child pornography, and not the email hacking case.

An arraignment date has not been set yet. After the hearing, Loera said he had no comment and referred questions to his attorney, David Serna, who did not appear in front of Torgerson because Serna is representing Levi Chavez, an Albuquerque Police Department officer who is facing murder charges in a high-profile trial.

“We’ll get an arraignment date after Mr. Serna is done with his trial,” Torgerson said from the bench.

John Anderson of the U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is prosecuting the case against Loera, told New Mexico Watchdog the arraignment could be waived, thus expediting the process.

FBI agents say they searched Loera’s home on the west side of Albuquerque in November looking for evidence related to the alleged hacking Martinez’s email. During the search, prosecutors say the alleged child pornography was discovered on a home computer.

According to an affidavit submitted by an FBI special agent, Loera controlled the hacked domain site and the 44-year-old Loera had “numerous text messages, chat conversations, and emails” with Jamie Estrada, a former Martinez campaign employee who is facing a 14-count indictment of hacking into the Martinez email account and allegedly making false statements to authorities.

Last month, Estrada entered a not guilty plea and has maintained the charges are based on accusations from people in the Martinez administration who are “com(ing) after me in an attempt to divert attention from their own improper actions, including the suspected Albuquerque Downs Racino bid rigging.”

That’s in reference to a controversial 25-year lease with the owners of the Downs at Albuquerque to operate a “racino” and build an estimated $20 million casino on the grounds of the New Mexico State Fair.

Martinez says Estrada turned on her after he was not offered a job within her administration’s cabinet.

Contact Rob Nikolewski at rob@nmwatchdog.org and follow him on Twitter @robnikolewski


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