Former attorney, judge sentenced for possession of child pornography

ALBERTVILLE, Al. - He was once a lawyer and a judge, now he's a convicted child porn user going to prison for a long, long time.

Former Albertville lawyer and municipal judge Steven Vincent Smith, 54, was sentenced yesterday to 17 1/2 years in prison for possessing thousands of images of child porn. He will have to serve 10 years of supervised release after he finishes his sentence.

Smith pleaded guilty in November to one count of receiving child pornography on a computer between January 2015 and March 2016. He was initially accused of four counts.

Court documents said Smith distributed child porn on the internet and possessed"thousands" of child porn images, including images of graphic sexual assaults on very young children.

Smith is also accused of molesting a child and teaching other sexual predators on how to

groom and molest children.

The memo also claimed Smith's crimes spanned multiple years, and cited forensic evidence showing him "discussing the rape of children and distributing child pornography as early as 2010."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Manu Balachandran prosecuted the case and obtained the conviction. Her boss, U.S. Attorney Jay Town, said, "This defendant swore to honor the law and uphold justice, but instead he committed loathsome crimes on the most vulnerable of victims. His innocent victims will grow into being survivors while Smith will spend most of his remaining breaths inside of a cell."