Hearing reset in child porn case

SANDPOINT — A preliminary hearing is being reset for a Sandpoint man accused of possessing and sharing child pornography.

Jerry Allan Horner’s hearing was set for Wednesday, but it’s being postponed until March so a full day can be devoted to the proceeding. The hearing is to determine if the state has enough evidence to justify trying him in 1st District Court.

A new hearing date is pending. Horner is free on $50,000 bail while the case is pending.

Horner, 48, is charged with six counts of sharing child pornography and five counts of possessing the sexually exploitive material.

Horner showed up on the radar of the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in May, when he allegedly offered for download a seven-minute video of a prepubescent girl having sex with an adult male.

Horner, court records allege, offered up the file on a file-sharing network that allows users to directly access specified files on their respective computers. A Meridian Police detective successfully downloaded the video and five other videos depicting child porn.

The task force searched Horner’s Oak Street home last November and discovered five more videos depicting child pornography, court documents indicate. The search also yielded methaphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, which resulted in additional criminal charges.

Horner was being held in lieu of $100,000 bail, although his defense counsel succeeded last month in getting the sum reduced, despite objections by the special prosecutor in the case.

The terms of Horner’s conditional release include prohibitions against having any unsupervised contact with minors, using computer devices, accessing the Internet or pornography of any kind. He’s also required to submit to periodic drug testing.