State v. Barger

247 P.3d 309 (2011)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

While investigating a report that Barger (D) had sexually abused a child police talked to D's wife, who told him that there was some 'weird' material on the couple's home computer. Police asked D's wife if she would allow them to take the computer and examine it. She consented. Police examined the hard drive and found in the computer's 'temporary internet file cache' pornographic pictures of children. Police did not find any images that had been purposefully copied and saved in any user's personal files but of course, did find them in temporary cache files. The evidence against D included the eight digital images, all of which police had discovered in the temporary Internet file cache of D's computer. D moved for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that there was no evidence that the eight images at issue had made their way onto the hard drive through any intentional or knowing action by him and that, even if it was possible to infer that D had accessed the images through web browsing, that inference was insufficient to establish defendant's knowing possession or control of those images. The jury ultimately returned guilty verdicts on all eight charges. The Court of Appeals affirmed without opinion. This appeal resulted.