Man sentenced in child porn case

Although a Coeur d’Alene man tried to erase pornographic pictures of children from his computer’s hard drive, a computer-savvy Spokane police detective managed to retrieve the images and supply enough evidence to send the man to prison.

Robert Witmor, 55, was arrested in August after his grown daughter discovered lewd pictures of children had been downloaded onto her computer, according to Deputy Prosecutor Jim Reierson. At the time, Witmor had been temporarily living in the basement of his daughter’s house in Coeur d’Alene, where she also operated a child care business. He was using her computer.

“She was very courageous for turning him in,” Reierson said.

But when police seized the computer, all the images had been erased and the hard drive reformatted, he said. “He figured he could do some quick work on the computer and there would be no evidence,” Reierson said.

Local law enforcement officers did not have the specialized training needed to retrieve the lost images, which Reierson described as “very, very disturbing.” But Spokane police Detective Ty Snider, who has forensic computer training, worked on the hard drive and was able to rescue the evidence.

“Without his help, it would have been very difficult to prosecute this case,” Reierson said.

At the time of his arrest, Witmor was doing computer consulting work in Coeur d’Alene. He had recently moved to North Idaho from Sacramento, Calif.

Witmor has no known criminal record and told police the images were “all for research” he was doing on child molesters, Reierson said.

Witmor’s conviction will allow law enforcement agencies to track his future activities carefully, Reierson told 1st District Judge Lansing Haynes at a sentencing hearing Friday.

“You have the opportunity to protect society,” Reierson told the judge.

Witmor entered an Alford plea in the case, which means that he does not admit that he possessed sexually exploitative material but acknowledges enough evidence exists to convince a jury that a crime occurred.

Witmor offered no statements in his defense. His attorney, Martin Neils, pointed out that Witmor once served as a foster parent to a girl who had been sexually abused. The girl, now grown, wrote a letter to the court saying Witmor had never tried to abuse her and had acted appropriately.

Judge Haynes sentenced Witmor to 10 years.

As for Witmor’s explanation that the images were for research, Haynes said, “No one’s buying this. … Your story is by and large not believable.”

Witmor will spend the next six months in a state prison. After that, Haynes will consider how Witmor should spend the remaining 9 1/2 years of the sentence – at a minimum, he will be on probation. Witmor must also register as a sex offender.