Porn case in court

MIDLAND Prosecutors told a U.S. magistrate Wednesday why FBI agents obtained search warrants for the home and office of Kermit resident and Winkler County News publisher Richard "Rick" Ellsworth McLaughlin - and that McLaughlin served time in prison in 1971.

An hourlong bond hearing for McLaughlin ended Wednesday afternoon with U.S. Magistrate Judge Stuart Platt saying he needed more time to consider a bond.

As of 5 p.m. Wednesday, no order had been filed by Platt.

Kermit police, acting on an FBI request, arrested McLaughlin on Aug. 7 in Kermit and charged him with possession of child pornography.

In a bond hearing on that charge Wednesday, Assistant U.S. attorney Kerry Fleck said McLaughlin was arrested and served time in 1971 in South Carolina after being convicted of "a crime involving a lewd act with a child" under 14 years old.

Platt said records showed McLaughlin was pardoned for the crime after serving at least a year in prison.

McLaughlin, wearing shackles on his feet and an orange jumpsuit, did not react to any of the testimony. He stared forward during the entire proceeding.

Following testimony Wednesday from FBI special agent David Sutherland, Platt said he wanted time to review case law concerning cases of child pornography possession and presumptions of defendants being a danger to a community.

"I'm trying to separate facts I heard from those affidavits," Platt said.

Fleck made an argument in court that McLaughlin, a former Odessa American reporter, was a "danger to the community" considering the amount of evidence seized from his workplace at the Winkler County News and his Kermit home.

Fleck said the prosecution believes that possession of child pornography is a violent crime.

McLaughlin's attorney, Richard Alvarado, made an argument that the evidence discussed in the bond hearing didn't support that conclusion.

"There's nothing showing he's a danger to anyone," Alvarado said.

Sutherland said McLaughlin lives in Kermit with his mother, a caretaker, his daughter, his son-in-law, three grandchildren: two young boys under 7 years old and an infant.

Family members of McLaughlin who were present at the hearing declined to comment, saying a statement would be featured in this week's Winkler County News.

The Texas Press Association lists McLaughlin as publisher of the Winkler County News despite some reports calling him the editor.

Alvarado asked Sutherland what probable cause led the agents to seize items from McLaughlin's office and home.

Sutherland testified that a Winkler County News employee told agents they'd seen child pornography on McLaughlin's personal laptop within the last year.

On another occasion, Kermit police running a security search in the area noticed the front door to the newspaper unlocked. Officers walked in and found McLaughlin on the computer and engaged in masturbation, Sutherland said.

A third instance that spurred probable cause, Sutherland said, was when Kermit police pulled up to McLaughlin's home to find a young man "evading" officers and McLaughlin in his car in the driveway with shorts on.

Sutherland also testified during the hearing about evidence seized from the Winkler County News and McLaughlin's home Aug. 5 in Kermit during a federal search conducted by the FBI, Kermit police and other local law enforcement.

Sutherland said two computer towers and McLaughlin's personal laptop were seized from the Winkler County News, but the devices had yet to be reviewed by FBI agents.

Agents also interviewed McLaughlin, newspaper employees and some of McLaughlin's family members.

Sutherland said a computer, slides, 22 rewritable CDs and videotapes were seized from the home following the search of the newspaper.

Evidence reviewed at the time of the searches features teenage to pre-pubescent boys engaging in sexual activity, Sutherland said.

At least one slide, or photo negative, he said, seemed to be from 1971. Many of the slides, he said, seemed to be from the late 1960s to the early 1970s and featured young boys "near a river" and another five slides showed a "nude male laying on a bed with pink covers."

Sutherland said he'd only reviewed one CD and it featured an hour and eight minutes of video footage of teenage and pre-pubescent boys engaging in sexual activity.

The FBI also received videos and DVDs from McLaughlin's family members stating they thought the videos contained child pornography, Sutherland said, noting those films were "commercially available movies" but each depicted "male frontal nudity."

Sutherland also testified that during interviews McLaughlin stated he'd been having problems with his home computer and work laptop about four to five months prior to the FBI search and that the computers had been "infected with spyware" and the "popups and banners" featured "mostly adult porn" but some were of child porn.

Sutherland said McLaughlin had the computers "cleaned" but that the popups and banners later returned.

Alvarado also asked if FBI agents and local officers determined pornography was on the computers taken from McLaughlin's office and home before they were seized. They had not, Sutherland said.

"You just seized them?" Alvarado asked Sutherland.

"Yes," Sutherland said.

See the affidavit filed by the FBI CLICK HERE