The Daily News (formerly Palo Alto Daily News) reports that its former editor, Brian Bothun, will stand trial in September for allegedly possessing child pornography.

In May 2008, Atherton police, responding to a report of domestic violence at Bothun’s Atherton home, were told by his angered partner that there was child pornography on his computer. Police seized the computer and last fall charged Bothun, 47, with possession of child pornography. Bothun’s attorney argued prosecutors could not prove the pornography was his, or that it depicted anyone under 18.

Judge James Ellis scheduled the start of Bothun’s jury trial for Sept. 28, the Daily News reported. If convicted on the felony charge, Bothun could face up to three years in state prison.

Bothun was at the Daily News from 1996 until 2005. He worked for the Daily Post for about a month in 2008. He also was an intern at the Palo Alto Weekly in the early 1990s.

(Full disclosure: The editor of the Press Club Web site, Dave Price, was Bothun’s boss for several years.)