New Mexico Physician Indicted On Porn Charges

A New Mexico physician who’s a computer buff was indicted Thursday in Spokane on seven counts of Internet child pornography and one count of aggravated sexual abuse.

A federal grand jury returned the eight-count indictment against Dr. Barry Kottler after hearing testimony from a U.S. Customs agent.

Kottler, 30, remains in jail in Spokane without bond.

His attorney, Carl Oreskovich, said Thursday he will go to a federal appeals court, possibly as early as today, in an attempt to win the doctor’s pre-trial release.

That legal fight could take a month or more.

Kottler has a constitutional right to stand trial within 70 days.

U.S. District Judge Frem Nielsen ruled last Friday that Kottler poses a danger to the public and can’t be released on bond or other conditions.

Kottler was arrested Feb. 6 after he flew from Albuquerque, N.M., to Spokane, where he allegedly believed he would have a sexual encounter with an 8-year-old girl.

At the detention hearings, Oreskovich said the doctor merely may have been doing his own investigation of people he thought were involved in child porn.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Rice countered that by asking Customs agent Marcus Lawson about the detailed computer files of children engaged in illegal sex acts with adults.

The doctor is accused of sending seven computer images of children involved in illegal sex, including a videotape.

The computer transmissions went to Lawson in Spokane, who posed in the sting operation as a 32-year-old mother with a daughter.

The federal agent exchanged computer messages after meeting a man identified as “kiddoc” in an Internet chat room devoted to child porn.

Kottler is charged with being engaged in interstate commerce of child pornography.

The more serious charge, however, is the single count of aggravated sexual abuse, tied to his alleged plans to have sex with a young girl and photograph the encounter.

If convicted, he could be sentenced up to life in prison. But sentencing guidelines suggest the sentence would be more like eight to 11 years.

Kottler likely would be stripped of his medical license if convicted.

He is expected to be formally arraigned next week.

At a detention hearing, Lawson testified that death-torture and child-bondage pictures were found on the doctor’s computers when Customs agents searched his home and office about 125 miles northwest of Albuquerque on the Navajo Indian Reservation.

, DataTimes