Man jailed on child pornography charges
SANDPOINT — A Sandpoint man was arrested Nov. 28 on felony charges of possessing and sharing child pornography.
Jerry Allan Horner is also charged with possession of methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.
Horner made an initial appearance the following day in Bonner County Magistrate Court via video feed from the jail. Judge Barbara Buchanan sustained Horner’s $100,000 bail, court documents indicate.
An application for a public defender is pending. Family members told Buchanan in court that they may try to seek private counsel for Horner.
Horner, 48, is charged with six counts of sharing child pornography and five counts of possessing child pornography.
Horner, court records said, attracted the attention of the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in May, when he offered for download a seven-minute video of a prepubescent girl having sex with an adult male.
Horner allegedly offered the file for downloading through a peer-to-peer file-sharing network. A Meridan Police detective was able to download the video from Horner’s computer using the file-sharing program.
The detective successfully downloaded five additional videos showing adults having sex with prepubescent boys and girls, a probable cause affidavit state.
The task force filed an administrative subpoena with Horner’s Internet service provider to obtain his Internet Protocol address, the unique numerical label assigned to computer devices.
The task force served a search warrant at Horner’s Oak Street home on Wednesday and confronted him about the videos he had on the file-sharing network, court documents indicate.
Horner allegedly told investigators he was amassing a digital pornographic library in the event such material cannot be downloaded for free from the Internet. He told investigators that he would delete files involving child pornography.
A search of Horner’s computer equipment, however, turned up five more videos depicting child pornography, a probable cause affidavit said.
A hearing to determine if the state possesses enough evidence to justify a trial in 1st District Court his pending.