Prosecution rests in teacher sexual assault case

BARSTOW - Deputy District Attorney Barbara McClanahan gave jurors a glimpse at the innards of the personal computer of James William McKinley, a former Cameron Elementary teacher accused of sexually assaulting his students, during the final day of her case. The defense will begin to call witnesses today.

As McClanahan displayed printouts of por nographic Web sites to the jury, Detective B r i a n S n ow o f t h e S a n Bernardino Sheriff's Hi-Tech Crime Detail identified them as sites he found while examining McKinley's computer. Disclaimers on the Web sites stated that all models were over 18.

Au t h o r i t i e s s e i z e d t h e computer while serving a search warrant at McKinley's house in Apple Valley. Snow said he found evidence of cookies on McKinley's computer. A cookie is a file created and stored on a computer's hard drive when a Web site has been accessed.

Much of Snow's testimony focused on how the sites could have been accessed. Snow said the sites could have been deliberately searched out and clicked on or appeared on the screen as pop-ups due to spyware or ad-ware also found on McKinley's computer. A computer infected with ad-ware or spy-ware has not control over the content that appears on the screen.

Another question posed in Wednesday's testimony concerned who accessed the sites. Defense attorney Stanley Hodge said he plans to call McKinley's son, who will testify that he accessed pornographic Web sites on the home computer. The Web sites displayed in court were accessed during a time when, according to testimony from McKinley's sister, the son was not in the house, McClanahan said.

Snow also identified a series of photos of clothed girls found on McKinley's computer. He could not identify the young girls but told the court he selected the photos for a reason.

"If they looked like students, then I bookmarked them," he said.

A c c o rd i n g t o p rev i o u s reports, Barstow police arrested McKinley on Jan. 24, 2006, on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 9-year-old student. The student, according to police reports, reported to School Resource Officer Albert Toro that McKinley sexually assaulted her at school. Shortly after the arrest, more students came forward to report similar assaults. McKinley pleaded not guilty to all charges in an arraignment in May 2006.

Before McClanahan closed her case, she called Detective Thomas Hutchins from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Crimes Against Children Detail. Hutchins, an expert in interviewing child victims of sexual assault, testified about some of the problems faced when talking to children about past assaults as the prosecution has done in this trial. Children disclose instances of sexual assault slowly, he said, and usually after some time after the assault.

"Some tell the next day; some tell the next month; some will never tell," he said.

He said when the child knows or trusts the adult involved, it can delay the disclosure process. An interviewer must be careful not to ask leading questions with children, he said.

"Children can be susceptible to answering questions the way you want them to," he said. "I want the truth. I don't want them to tell me what I want to hear."

Judge John B. Gibson tried to keep the mood in his courtroom light during Wednesday's adultonly content.

"Did Payton Manning deserve to be the most valuable play (in the Super Bowl)? Discuss," he instructed the jury during a brief break. He also detailed the history of how Greenwich, England, became the home of Greenwich Mean Time, "the place where time begins."

Hodge's defense will begin today at 9 a.m. in department B1 at the Barstow courthouse and then the trial will be suspended until Feb. 14.