Pierce County made national headlines last year when a convicted child pornographer was allowed to watch videos depicting child sex while he was in jail preparing for his next trial.
It could have been worse, county Prosecutor Mark Lindquist says: If Weldon Marc Gilbert had been out on bail, he could have taken copies of the videos home.
“That’s just completely wrong,” Lindquist said before testifying at a legislative hearing in Olympia Wednesday.
Prosecutors want more restrictions on the copying and dissemination of child pornography as part of criminal cases. They call for containing it to a police evidence room or other secure spot where defense attorneys and their clients could come to review it.
Defenders say it would make it awkward for them to prepare their cases at the police station.
“We don’t want to be in a position where our defense is somehow revealed,” Amy Muth, a lawyer and member of the Washington Defender Association and Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told lawmakers Wednesday.
The legislation proposed by Tacoma Democratic Rep. Connie Ladenburg would create an exception for defense experts. A judge could allow approved experts to have off-site access to a “mirror image” of a hard drive, or even the hard drive itself, under a restrictive court order.
Either way, Lindquist said, law enforcement wouldn’t have to copy images or videos to discs and hand them out, as he said his office did for the more than 100 videos it accuses Gilbert of filming. The Lake Tapps man is acting as his own lawyer.
“We actually had to manufacture a copy for him,” Lindquist said. “I view that as significant because every time you copy child pornography and distribute it, you’re re-victimizing the victim.”
Ladenburg’s legislation may be reworked to resolve separation-of-powers worries.
If it becomes law, it would have little effect on the core fact that offended some in Gilbert’s case: that a defendant could be allowed to view such videos. The state Supreme Court ruled in 2007 a defense attorney is entitled to copies of child pornography if it is used as the prosecution’s evidence.
Police say Gilbert lured more than a dozen boys to his home then paddled and molested them.
His trial on charges of child rape, child molestation and other sex offenses is scheduled to start today. A federal court convicted him on separate charges in 2009.
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.