HELENA, Mont. - The Independent Record reported that jurors hearing the case of Shawn Jackson in federal court were visibly uncomfortable as they viewed clips of pornographic movies in an attempt to determine whether or not children were involved the films.
Tuesday was the second day of Jackson's trial. He is accused of receiving and possessing child pornography through a personal computer.
According to the Independent Record, Jimmy Weg, a criminal investigation agent, testified that he found 72,000 images on two of Jackson's hard drives. Weg said most of those images showed adults engaged in sexual activities, but Weg also testified that he found "perhaps thousands" of images of "child erotica."
The Independent Record reported that Weg testified that "These were images of little girls-12, 13, 14, 15-posed in what I consider sexually provocative poses, although all wore clothing like shorts or hot pants." While Weg described these pictures as "modeling shots," he claimed he also found videos on Jackson's hard drives which were what Weg would define as child pornography. Many of those images were found in the computer's recycle bin, indicating the images had been deleted.
The sticking point on Tuesday was a movie titled Dark Seductress that was pulled from one of Jackson's hard drives. The jury in Jackson's case has to decide whether the movie involves children younger than 18, and this is why they were required to watch clips of the film.
The Independent Record reported that Marcia Hurd, a prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's office, is hoping to show that Jackson purposely downloaded child pornography onto his computers.
Jackson's attorney, Ian Friedman, claimed that when his client found the pornographic images depicting children while downloading legal adult porn, Jackson deleted the illegal files. Friedman also pointed out that Weg had to use special equipment and training to access the deleted files, something that was beyond Jackson's ability with computers. It was also brought up that Jackson wasn't the only person with access to the computers in question.
The paper reported that Jackson was indicted by a grand jury last November, and pleaded not guilty to one count of receiving illegal images and one count of possession in December.
The trial, which is presided over by U.S. District Court Senior Judge Charles Lovell, will continue today.
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