CATLETTSBURG — An Ashland man at the center of a recent incident involving an Ohio State University football recruit was arraigned Friday on a charge of failure to comply with the terms of the state sex offender registery.

Through his attorney, Michael Curtis, Charles Eric Waugh, 31, entered a not-guilty plea to the Class D felony.

Waugh was indicted Monday on the charge, which stems from him allegedly violating the terms of the probation he received in 2008 after pleading guilty to downloading child pornography from the Internet.

Boyd Circuit Judge George W. Davis III scheduled a pre-trial conference in the case for June 29. He also order Waugh’s bond to remain at $25,000.

Waugh, who’s being held in the Boyd County Detention Center, also has a $200,000 bond in his probation-violation case.

According to Curtis, if Waugh is convicted of failure-to-comply charge and also has his probation revoked, he faces the possibility of being sent to prison for up to 10 years.

Curtis also said the probation matter would not be determined until after the most recent charge against Waugh is resolved.

Curtis, who also represented Waugh in the 2008 case, said his client pleaded guilty in that case to possession of material portraying sexual performance by a minor even though he maintained he didn’t know how the images got on his computer, and passed a polygraph test to that effect while undergoing sex offender treatment in Morehead.

He said it was his belief the pictures were inadvertently downloaded onto his client’s computer through a peer-to-peer file-sharing program he had been using to download music.

“The pictures could have been bundled with some music he was downloading,” he said.

The downloading of the images caught the notice of the FBI’s office in Oklahoma City, which notified the bureau’s Louisville office. The Louisville office, in turn, contacted the Kentucky State Police.

The KSP’s Electronic Crimes Unit plumbed the hard drive of Waugh’s computer and found he had attempted to erase some of the images but they were still there. Investigators also found evidence to indicate there was “no doubt” Waugh had downloaded the pictures intentionally, Boyd Commonwealth’s Attorney David Justice said at the time.

Curtis said defense experts who examined Waugh’s computer were never able to find proof that he didn’t intend to download the images, and his client had no choice but to plead guilty because the pictures were, in fact, on his computer. Waugh received five years’ probation, was ordered to undergo sex offender treatment and was ordered to register as a sex offender for 20 years.

Waugh was arrested earlier this month by the KSP after the agency was contacted Monday by the state Office of Probation and Parole about Waugh allegedly being noncompliant with the terms of the sex offender registry.

Specifically, Waugh allegedly failed to disclose to Probation and Parole the identities he was using on the Internet, the KSP said. An investigation revealed Waugh had Twitter, Facebook and email accounts under an assumed name, according to the KSP.

Waugh’s most recent arrest came days after Waugh found himself embroiled in a controversy involving Alex Anzalone of Wyomissing, Pa., one of the nation’s top high school linebackers. Anzalone who had committed to Ohio State last, but revoked his commitment to the Buckeyes after being contacted by Waugh.

Anzalone visited Columbus last month during OSU’s spring game weekend. While there, he and other potential Buckeye recruits posted for a photo with Waugh, who later posted it on Twitter.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.