Federal charges pending in porn case

SANDPOINT — A child pornography possession case pending against a West Virginia man is expected to be dismissed and resurface in U.S. District Court.

Dennis Joseph Burke waived his right to a speedy preliminary hearing on Wednesday. The hearing was reset for later this month, although attorneys expect the Idaho case to be supplanted by a federal indictment.

“This case is being investigated at the federal level,” Bonner County Prosecutor Louis Marshall said during Wednesday’s hearing.

If Burke is indicted, Marshall said the Idaho case would be dismissed.

Burke, 51, remains jailed with bail set at $100,000. He is charged with possessing sexually exploitive material on March 21.

Burke, according to court records, had been staying at the Country Inn in Sagle and allegedly offered to sell the pornographic images to another motel guest.

The digital pictures were reportedly stored on Burke’s laptop computer, which Marshall said is the subject of a federal search warrant sought by U.S. district attorneys and the FBI.

Marshall said Burke voluntarily surrendered the computer, which reportedly contains as many as 200,000 illegal images.

Marshall said an indictment is expected later this month.