A 27-year-old Felida man appeared Tuesday in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of possessing and dealing in hundreds of depictions of child pornography.
James Alexander Gardner faces charges of five counts of dealing in depictions of minors and 10 counts of possessing depictions of minors at his Aug. 2 arraignment.
Gardner on Tuesday posted $75,000 bail, which was set by Judge Scott Collier. As a condition of his release, he is prohibited from contact with minors and possessing or using computers at work.
Gardner doesn’t qualify for a court-appointed attorney and has hired Vancouver attorney Jon McMullen to defend him.
According to a probable cause affidavit filed with the court, Vancouver police began investigating Gardner last year. On Oct. 22, an investigator detected a computer located in Vancouver was being used to share images of child pornography through a peer-to-peer network.
Vancouver police on Jan. 30 served a search warrant at Gardner’s apartment in the Felida neighborhood and seized multiple items of digital evidence. A forensic investigation of the items revealed 191 videos of child pornography, according to the affidavit. At least 10 of those depicted a minor engaged in a sex act, the affidavit says. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that 54 of the videos showed images of an identified child victim, the affidavit says.
Court documents indicate Gardner has no criminal history.
Paris Achen: 360-735-4551; http://twitter.com/Col_Courts; http://facebook.com/ColTrends; paris.achen@columbian.com.
