Richard Robert Lee will remain on parole while his case is brought before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal court decided Monday.

Lee was released from prison in March after being convicted in 1995 and serving a prison sentence since then for sexually abusing a 4-year-old boy.

Lee, 49, has maintained his innocence. He has told the Democrat-Herald that it was another man who abused the boy.

Six days after Lee was released and placed on parole in Albany, U.S. District Judge Owen M. Panner in Portland set aside Lee's convictions and ordered that he be released from parole. Panner found problems in the way Lee's trial had been conducted.

Panner later refused to keep Lee on parole while the case made its way through the appeals process.

The state then went before the Ninth Circuit and made a motion to stay Panner's judgment pending a resolution of the appeal. That motion was granted Monday by Judges Richard A. Paez in Pasadena and Richard C. Tallman in Seattle.

The judges denied the state's motion to extend the time to file an opening brief. It is due July 20.

The case has been put on the calender for the week of Oct. 5-9, to be heard in Portland.

Shortly before Lee's release from prison, the Linn County Parole and Probation office notified the public about his pending return to Albany.

Lee remains under supervision, living with family in East Albany, and there have been no problems with him, said Ric Bergey, director of parole and probation in Linn County.

Lee is complying with the conditions of parole, including wearing a GPS tracking device, Bergey said.