William Joseph Bean II - Busted by Yahoo! for Child Porn

An East County man who once worked as a summer camp counselor in New England was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison after admitting he possessed child pornography and posted it on the Internet.

U.S. District Court Judge Barry Ted Moskowitz also ordered William Joseph Bean II of Lakeside to serve 10 years of supervised release and to register as a sex offender.

Moskowitz gave Bean credit for two months already served in state custody.

Bean, 24, was arrested Jan. 2. In court, he admitted possessing a computer with more than 600 images of children, in some cases as young as 5, engaged in sexually explicit acts, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alessandra P. Serano.

Yahoo! notified authorities in San Diego County after Bean, who originally is from Vermont, used Yahoo! to post child pornography on the Web, Serano said.

The prosecution against Bean was delayed while state and federal prosecutors discussed whether to try him in state or federal court.

Because federal law carries more prison time for such offenses than state law – and due to the volume of images in his possession – the decision was made to let federal prosecutors take over, Serano said.

The state charges were dropped, and Bean pleaded guilty to federal charges of possessing child pornography on May 2, Serano said.

“He considered himself to be a part of the BL community. BL stands for boy lover,” Serano said. “He believed it was okay to have sex with children, as long as the children consented.” Despite his view, “he said he never acted on it, and we have no evidence that he ever acted on it,” Serano said.