Maine Supreme Judicial Court justices questioned a state prosecutor April 9 on why she felt a Lincoln County jury needed to hear about erotic images found on a Nobleboro man's computer.

The state's highest court was hearing former Maine State Trooper Gregory Vrooman's appeal of his sex crime convictions. Vrooman was sentenced in June 2012 to serve 21 months in prison for crimes involving a girl when she was 12 and 13 years old, in 2009 and 2010.

Vrooman's jury convicted him on four charges each of assault, unlawful sexual contact and unlawful sexual touching. He was fired from his trooper job following the convictions.

During Tuesday's oral arguments, Vrooman's lawyer Steven Peterson maintained the only point of testimony about the erotic images of females ages 16 to 25 was to prejudice the jury. “And I think that's exactly what it did do,” he said.

Chief Justice Leigh Saufley asked Peterson why he thought the evidence wouldn't be relevant to Vrooman's state of mind.

The times that the images appeared on the computer did not coincide with times Vrooman said he had incidentally touched the girl, Peterson said.

Justice Joseph Jabar later asked Assistant Attorney General Deborah Cashman what the descriptions of computer evidence contributed to her case against Vrooman that she didn't already have through other testimony.

“Did you really need this evidence … What did that add to your case,” Jabar asked.

Cashman told the justices the descriptions helped corroborate the testimony of the victim's mother, whose credibility was at issue. It also helped show motive, due to the young age range of the girls or women in the images, she said.

“This was very relevant,” Cashman said.

The justices gave no hint of how quickly they may rule on the appeal. In an interview after the proceeding, Peterson said the court ruled only a few weeks ago on another case of his that had had oral arguments nine months earlier.

The court overturned the convictions in that case, he said.

Peterson wouldn't speculate on Vrooman's chances of a successful appeal, but he said he thought the justices appeared to be particularly interested in the issue of whether or not the prosecution needed the evidence about the images.

Cashman declined comment.

Vrooman did not attend Tuesday's proceeding. He is free on $25,000 unsecured bail while his appeal is pending.

Susan Johns can be reached at 207-844-4633 or sjohns@wiscassetnewspaper.com.

Related: Ex-trooper appeals sex crime convictions