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A three-member panel of the state Superior Court has upheld the conviction for a Wilkes-Barre man who was found guilty in 2016 of possessing more than 100 images of child pornography.
				Patrick E. Gardinor, 36, formerly of Maxwell Street, was arrested by the state Office of Attorney General on June 3, 2014, several months after child pornography was found on his computer.
				Gardinor was found guilty in a non-jury trial by Luzerne County President Judge Michael T. Vough on Nov. 9, 2016, and was sentenced Feb. 27, 2017, to five to 10 years in state prison. Gardinor was also deemed a sexual predator and must register his address for 25 years under the state&rsquo;s Megan&rsquo;s Law upon release.
				Gardinor challenged his conviction claiming his trial lawyer, a private attorney from Philadelphia, was ineffective for failing to file a motion to suppress evidence found on his computer.
				Gardinor claimed in his petition for Post Conviction Relief that the search warrant served for his computer contained &ldquo;stale&rdquo; information and was issued four to five months after state agents discovered child pornography, court records say.
				A state agent discovered child pornography in late January 2014 and did not apply for a search warrant to search Gardinor&rsquo;s residence and computer until June 3, 2014.
				Arrest records say Gardinor was found to be in possession of pictures and videos of children under the age of 18 engaged in sexual acts or sexual poses.
				&ldquo;The four to five month gap between law enforcement&rsquo;s initial discovery of evidence that (Gardinor) possessed child pornography and the execution of the warrant at (Gardinor&rsquo;s) residence did not render the evidence in question stale,&rdquo; the Superior Court ruled in an eight page opinion issued Monday.
				&ldquo;We conclude that (Gardinor&rsquo;s) staleness claim is devoid of arguable merit, and trial counsel cannot be found ineffective for failing to pursue this meritless claim,&rdquo; the appellate court ruled in upholding Gardinor&rsquo;s conviction.
				Vough previously denied Gardinor&rsquo;s post-conviction relief petition in May 2019.
				Court records in Luzerne County incorrectly list Gardinor&rsquo;s birth year as 1966 as the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the Pennsylvania State Police Megan&rsquo;s Law website list his year of birth in 1983.

Convicted child pornographer loses appeal