A Bradford man acquitted of downloading child pornography — but convicted of using his computer to do it — has had his conviction overturned by the state Superior Court.

Steven J. Hurd, 38, was charged and prosecuted by the state Attorney General’s Child Predator Unit for numerous counts of possessing and disseminating child pornography, along with one count of criminal use of a computer.

Represented by public defender Phil Clabaugh, Hurd went to a bench trial before Senior Judge William Morgan on June 1, 2015.

Hurd was acquitted on the child pornography charges by Morgan. “Although the Commonwealth introduced into evidence over 90 images of suspected child pornography at trial, the trial court determined that the Commonwealth failed to associate a particular image or file with the corresponding count charged in the information,” reads a footnote in the Superior Court opinion.

Morgan had found Hurd guilty of the charge of criminal use of a computer, and sentenced him to 11 ½ to 21 ½ months in jail on the charge.

Clabaugh filed an appeal, and Hurd remained incarcerated, ultimately serving about 8 ½ months and being released early for “good time” — no behavioral incidents — at the jail.

On June 1, a panel of Superior Court judges overturned Hurd’s conviction, saying that absent a conviction for a crime allegedly committed with the computer, a conviction on criminal use of the computer can’t be upheld.

“We felt strongly about the appeal when we filed it and are happy with the result,” Clabaugh told The Era on Thursday. “The trial court held that there was insufficient evidence and granted Mr. Hurd’s motion for judgment of acquittal at the conclusion of the Commonwealth’s case on all but one of the criminal charges.

“After review of the record, the Superior Court has agreed with defendant’s position that there was insufficient evidence for a conviction on the one remaining charge, and that conviction and sentence have now been overturned.”   

Hurd had been arrested in 2014 for allegedly using peer-to-peer file sharing programs on the Internet to view child pornography, according to court records at the time of his arrest.