A jury today found former station TV33 owner Peter Mallory guilty on all 64 counts against him including charges of possession of child pornography, evidence tampering and invasion of privacy.
Mallory’s bail was immediately revoked and he was taken to jail until he is sentenced Feb. 12.
After closing arguments on Friday, the jury in the Peter Mallory trial went into deliberations Monday.
Prosecuting attorneys Stephen Lee and Kevin McMurry argued that Mallory did knowingly possess over 25,000 photos and over 700 videos of minors engaged in sex acts.
“He did not have over 25,000 accidents. The defendant knew that he controlled the pornography.” said Lee.
Mallory supposedly acquired the images and photos due to mass downloading of movies he would use to download old movies for his TV-33 station.
“If you’re looking for old movies, why would you download photographs.” said McMurry.
They argued that direct evidence also shows that Mallory was tampering with evidence when Detective Wayne Cato saw him pull the hard drive out of the computer. An image of Mallory adjusting a camera that was under his desk while sitting next to a minor was shown again in court, and prosecutors argued that the camera was not a security camera and that Mallory was invading the privacy of the young girl.
The defense attorneys Ed and John Garland argued that their defendant never said that he knew child porn was in his mass downloads, but that he said it was possible; there is no evidence that shows if Mallory, or even anyone, even viewed the images or videos.
“This is all just circumstantial evidence.” argued John. “No one proved that Peter Mallory even knew of the child porn.”
Ed noted in a slide show presentation that to conceal evidence means to hide evidence. According to Ed, Mallory did not hide the drive because it was done in the gaze of Cato, and Mallory could not have hid the drive if it was being placed into an open box.
He leaves it up to the jury to decide where Mallory placed the cameras under his desk for security purpose, but noted that it makes no sense that Mallory would get sexually satisfaction from filming someone wearing jeans.
“The state has a complete failure of burden of proof in this case.” said Ed Garland.
For further updates, check back with lagrangenews.com and for a full report, pick up Wednesday’s LaGrange Daily News.
I have been a volunteer for several years counseling adult victims and survivors of childhood sexual abuse, and all kinds of child abuse. This is a life-long sentence to the child, and we must speak out, and show support for the VICTIMS, AND NOT THE PERPETRATORS. GREAT JOB ON THE CONVICTIONS.
REMEMBER, ONE ABUSED CHILD IS ONE TOO MANY.