By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – An Ogdensburg police officer facing child pornography charges has been jailed without bail pending a Feb. 23 hearing to determine if he has violated  terms of his supervised release.

Harry J. McCarthy, 55, a 30-year veteran of the Ogdensburg Police Department was sent to St. Lawrence County Jail today, according to Franklin County Assistant District Attorney Gary Pasqua, who is prosecuting child pornography charges against McCarthy.

In August, McCarthy was charged with promoting and possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child.

McCarthy was arraigned and released under probation supervision on those charges and has remained on paid leave from his job at the Ogdensburg Police Department.

On Saturday McCarthy was charged with violating an order of protection after troopers say he approached and engaged in conversation with a 16 year-old male, who has an active order of protection against McCarthy.

Pasqua said that prompted the probation office to apply for his release under supervision to be revoked.

Pasqua said the judge set a hearing date for Feb. 23 to determine if the violation of a court order would constitute a violation of his probation.

Until that hearing McCarthy will remain in St. Lawrence County Jail.

Pasqua said he takes "seriously" any violations of an order of protection. He said he is continuing plea negotiations with McCarthy’s attorney regarding the child pornography charges.

St. Lawrence County District Attorney Mary E. Rain and County Court Judge Jerome J. Richards have both recused themselves from the case due to personal conflicts associated with McCarthy’s police work. Because of the conflicts Pasqua and Franklin County Court Judge Derek P. Champagne are handling the case.

McCarthy’s original arrest was the result of an investigation conducted by the New York State Police Computer Crimes Unit and Troop B, in cooperation with the City of Ogdensburg Police Department.

McCarthy was apparently caught by Google's system for monitoring child pornography. Citing court documents, WWNY TV News reports one image of a prepubescent female having vaginal sex with an adult male was uploaded May 19 at 8:26 p.m. from McCarthy’s home.

“Court papers say the image was uploaded using the Google Gmail service, with an email address of Loverbouy.girl@gmail.com. Google notified the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children of the child porn image and the internet addresses that were used to access the email account,” The WWNY report says.

An order of protection was also issued for McCarthy's girlfriend and her children.