Two computers belonging to Davis and taken by troopers in January 2002 weren’t examined until recently after technicians with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation in Anchorage did an evidence inventory — even though local troopers in 2002 kept getting extensions for a warrant to search the computers for suspected child porn. The computers — and a warrant — got lost in the system, said Greg Wilkinson, a trooper spokesperson.
Wilkinson said 10 years ago ABI forensic computer specialists might have had one computer at a time to search. Today, there are about 60 computers to be searched by the bureau’s two white-collar crime specialists.
“This should have been dealt with years ago,” said retired trooper Sgt. Jim Hibpshman, head of the Homer post — now the Anchor Point post — until April 2005.
In January 2002, Sgt. Rick Roberts, then assigned to the Homer trooper post, went with an Office of Children’s Services case worker to Davis’ Anchor Point home to investigate a report alleging Davis sexually abused a child and possessed child pornography. In a criminal complaint, Roberts told Sgt. Tom Dunn, current head of the Anchor Point post, that at the time he saw a Dell computer in a 17-year-old boy’s room.
The boy said the computer had child porn. Roberts searched the computer and found bookmarks for Web sites like “Lolita’s Art Photos,” “Ultimate Boy’s Gallery” and “Underage Lolita Video.” Roberts said Davis gave him permission to look at a Compaq computer, and he saw pornographic sites on that computer as well.
Roberts got a search warrant to seize both computers and 19 videos, and to have them examined for images of children under 18 involved in sexual acts. The computers were sent to the Anchorage ABI crime lab. In July 2002 Roberts transferred to the troopers in Sitka. Now an instructor at the Alaska Law Enforcement Training Academy in Sitka, Roberts said he followed up on the case several times after he left Homer. Hibpshman also looked into the case, Roberts said.
Last September, a trooper evidence technician in Anchorage contacted Roberts and said the warrant had never been served or the computers searched. The technician wanted to remove the computers from inventory. Roberts told Dunn about the case and Dunn got a new search warrant in October. Two investigators with the troopers in Anchorage then searched the Dell and Compaq computers and sent Dunn a report earlier this month.
Those investigators told Dunn they found images of alleged child pornography. According to their report, the Dell computer had 309 suspect images of child porn and evidence it was used to view child porn Web sites and other sexually explicit sites. Another 140 images of banners from child porn Web sites were found as well as “cookies,” or Web data files, from child porn sites.
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