Troyer said the images couldn’t be legally defined as pornography because they don’t involve real people.
By GENE JOHNSON and MIKE BAKER
Associated Press
SEATTLE — Before Josh Powell was going to try to win back custody of his children last week, Washington state authorities received materials from Utah police that had been discovered on a computer in Powell’s home two years ago. Authorities say the images depicted “incestuous” sex and were disconcerting enough that they prompted a psychologist to recommend that Powell undergo an intensive psychosexual evaluation.
But a lawyer for Powell’s in-laws, who had custody of the boys, wasn’t invited to see the computer-generated materials before the custody hearing — even though a Utah judge had specified in a sealed court order that he was one of the few people allowed to see them.
Had he seen the images, attorney Steve Downing said, he might have asked the court to change the terms of Powell’s supervised visitation with the boys, such as by asking for the visits to be in a public place.
Instead, Downing said he didn’t learn until Thursday morning — four days after Powell killed himself and the boys in a house fire — that he was allowed to see them.
“That would have absolutely given me the opportunity to submit a declaration about our deep concern. I was approved … to view those pictures and I was never notified,” Downing said.
Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Ed Troyer told The Associated Press on Thursday night that the images collected by investigators from Powell’s home computer in Utah two years ago were realistic computer-generated depictions of “incestuous” parent-child relations.
“It’s family-oriented in nature,” Troyer said. “It is incestuous.”
Troyer said the images couldn’t be legally defined as pornography because they don’t involve real people.