By AP/KWMU
St. Louis, MO – A federal appeals court in St. Louis threw out a conviction against a priest on Tuesday.
The court said evidence against James Beine was illegally seized, so it threw out his four-year, nine-month sentence for possessing child pornography.
But the ruling does not affect a 12-year sentence Beine received in September for exposing himself to three boys while he was a counselor in a school. Beine is also known as Mar James.
The government says it's weighing its appellate options in light of the ruling.