ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) — Ex-state trooper Jay Sandifer, formerly of Vidalia, pleaded guilty Friday to receiving child pornography and faces at least five years in prison, U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley said.

Sandifer, 41, now of Jena, La., was indicted in September 2010 on three federal pornography charges. Finley said they were based on hundreds of images found on his computers.

“After much discussion and thought, Jay Sandifer made the decision that a guilty plea was in the best interest of his family,” his attorney, George Higgins said.

A weeklong trial had been scheduled to start Monday.

He had no comment about state charges in Concordia, LaSalle and Franklin parishes alleging that Sandifer had inappropriate conduct with girls.

Sandifer remains under house arrest on $100,000 bond, under federal court order to stay away from “children involved in state court cases.”

Judge Dee Drell scheduled sentencing Jan. 27 on the receiving charge, which carries a minimum five-year term, and up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Sandifer was a 15-year state police veteran when he was indicted in May 2010 on three state charges of indecent behavior with a juvenile. The LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Office began investigating after a hospital called about a juvenile doctors had examined.

The two counts dropped by federal prosecutors — possessing and looking at the photos — each carried sentences of up to 10 years in prison, Assistant U.S. Attorney Earl Campbell said.

State Police investigator Amanda Fournier said the photos on Sandifer’s computers showed the genitalia of girls ages 10 to 12 years old, and also showed girls in sexual contact with males.

Sandifer found the websites with Internet searches such as “pre-teen nudist art pics” and “young nudist art pics,” Fournier said.

She said Sandifer’s laptop, given to him by the LaSalle Parish Police Jury for work, contained approximately 90 images of child porn, found by a computer forensics expert after the Police Jury gave State Police permission to search it.

Investigators later found similar images on Sandifer’s personal computer in his Vidalia home.

Sandifer patrolled the roads of Concordia, LaSalle and Franklin parishes for State Police Troop E, from which he was fired July 28, 2010, after being on the force since 1995.

The federal charges grew out of child-sex allegations in Concordia Parish, where the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office has taken over prosecution of state charges against Sandifer.

Attorney General’s Office spokeswoman Amanda Larkin said he is scheduled for arraignment Nov. 2 in Vidalia.

Franklin Parish Assistant District Attorney Johnny Boothe said prosecutors hadn’t decided whether to try molestation and indecent behavior charges brought in a bill of information there.

“Probably not,” Booth said. “I am anticipating a lengthy (federal) prison sentence.”

Federal court documents noted that in May 2010 LaSalle sheriff’s officials received a complaint from a woman who said Sandifer, while a uniformed state trooper, “engaged in inappropriate conduct” with her 5-year-old daughter during an overnight visit.

Sandifer allegedly took a bath with the girl and slept nude with her, Campbell and Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicole Snyder, wrote in court papers.

Other girls aged 11 to 16 came forward after the May 2010 complaint, federal prosecutors said. The allegations range from “inappropriate touching to oral sex and intercourse,” they said.