AUBURN - An Auburn man avoided federal child pornography charges after he was allowed to plead guilty in Cayuga County Court Tuesday to a local charge of possessing child pornography.

James Bonsant, 60, of 225 N. Seward St., was supposed to plead guilty on March 10 but had his case adjourned after he diminished his role in the incident by putting the blame on a friend.

Bonsant previously said Larry LeVancher downloaded images of children engaged in sexual acts and that he only tried to delete them from his computer.

Because Bonsant e-mailed one of the images to a person in London and downloaded images with his laptop computer while driving a truck across state lines with LeVancher, Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann previously said that Bonsant's involvement went deeper than just deleting pictures.

"There was child pornography on my computer," Bonsant said. "I was aware of it; it was wrong. I take full responsibility for it."

LeVancher, who worked with Bonsant as a truck driver, was convicted on Sept. 29 of federal child pornography charges for his role in the incident.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the federal charges were dropped and Bonsant could receive shock probation when he is sentenced on May 12. Bonsant will also have to register as a sex offender.