BAY MINETTE, Ala. — Federal probation officer Cory Robbins knocked on the back door and waited about eight minutes before Ronald Jay McFadden, convicted in 1997 of possessing child pornography, opened the door to his Foley home.

“He was sweating and out of breath and that showed me something might be going on,” Robbins testified March 31 during a three-day trial in which McFadden, 55, of County Road 26, was found guilty of possessing and producing child pornography.

Robbins said he told McFadden to sit on a couch while he began searching the home. He discovered a pair of children’s panties in a kitchen cabinet. Then he discovered a false cabinet backing and found more children’s panties, toys, clothing and small children’s shoes.

Robbins called his supervisor for permission to continue the search, Mirandized McFadden and asked Foley Police officer Connie King to participate.

During a five-hour examination of the home, authorities found boxes of photos depicting nude adults and children as young as 18 months, according to testimony. Many of the images, gleaned from pornography magazines, medical books and other sources, were pasted on cardboard, according to prosecutor Hallie Dixon.

The variety of pasted images depicted nude adults, some participating in oral sex, and sexual phrases appearing to come from images of naked children.

Defense attorney Cali Armstrong argued that the images were protected under the First Amendment, that no children were depicted in sexual acts and that the individual photos were not lewd.

“There are serious First Amendment issues in this case,” Armstrong said Friday. “There were innocent pictures of children pasted with adult pornography. No children in any respect were harmed, there was so sexual assault, no camera put into evidence. There were just images cut from magazines and medical-type books.”

Armstrong said she will file an appeal this week based on First Amendment issues.

Dixon argued that McFadden attempted to circumvent prosecution by combining the images which became lewd, rather than purchasing images depicting children in various sexual situations.

“These were innocent photographs cut out and pasted to be lewd,” Dixon said.

A Baldwin County Circuit Court agreed, and returned guilty verdicts April 2 on both counts.

Dixon said sentencing parameters, based on two 1997 convictions, are 10 years to life on the possession conviction and life or 99 years for production.

“These were children as young as 18 months,” Dixon said. “There were two shots of babies’ genitalia. We will continue to vigorously prosecute these cases.

“The jury was wonderful. They were proud to take him off the streets.”