A former Bellevue College instructor charged with possession of child pornography has pleaded not guilty in King County Superior Court. Michael Gelotte, 56, is charged with with one count of possessing child pornography.

Prosecutors say Gelotte had more than 2,000 images of preteen girls stored on a thumb drive. The girls appeared to be minor children ranging from 2 to about 12 years old. In addition Gelotte admitted to police that he’s engaged minors in sexual conversations online.

Since Gelotte has no prior felonies the maximum sentence he can receive if found guilty is 14 months.

That’s a situation that would change if State Attorney General Rob McKenna gets his way.

According to a report by Patricia Murphy of KUOW News, legislation working its way through the statehouse would give prosecutors the ability to levy multiple charges against people who intentionally look at child pornography.

“There’s a big difference between a person who has one or two images and someone who is trafficking in those images.” McKenna said. “It doesn’t mean that someone would be charged with a thousand counts and face a hundred year long sentence, but we do want to distinguish between people who are major dealers and people who are more causal.”

This is the third try for a bill of this type and frankly McKenna says he’s concerned. The bill has passed the state House unanimously, but this year’s short session is dominated by budget issues and it has until the end of next week to make it out of a senate committee.

Gelotte’s next court appearance is March 2. He’s been ordered to have no contact with minors and not to use a computer that has access to the Internet.

(Originally published Feb. 21)