Court hearing takes care of final details wiping out ex-principal's child porn conviction
By Erik Hidle, Peninsula Daily News
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On May 20, the Tacoma-based Division II Court of Appeals reversed Whipple's 2006 Jefferson County conviction on nine counts of possessing child pornography, saying in a 2-1 decision that the evidence against him was insufficient.
Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell — who was not available for comment on Friday afternoon — decided against appealing the ruling to the state Supreme Court.
Whipple, who had been the Chimacum High School's principal for five years before he resigned in the spring of 2006 after his arrest, was alleged to have taken photos and videos of his stepdaughter from outside her bedroom window at his former Port Ludlow home. She was 15 at the time.
On Friday, Superior Court Judge Craddock Verser agreed with Whipple's Bainbridge Island-based attorney, Alton McFadden, who said Whipple's name should be removed from the county's list of sexual offenders, his DNA samples should be removed from the state database and his court fees should be refunded.
The court will place a stay on his Department of Corrections status as a Class 3 sex offender.
Verser said he will order the State Police to remove his DNA samples from the database/
Whipple will be refunded $350 in court fees, but the cost of expert witnesses in the case will not be refunded, Verser said.
Whipple — who was living in Arizona in May, Dalzell said — was not present for the hearing.
Appeals court
In the appellate court's majority opinion, Judges C.C. Bridgewater and Marywave Van Deren wrote that evidence against Whipple was insufficient to support the nine convictions for possession of child pornography.
They argued that, to support such convictions, the law requires that a minor must be involved in a sex act intended to stimulate the viewer.
"We found no evidence that the defendant initiated, contributed to or in any way influenced the girl's conduct," Bridgewater's majority opinion said.
Judge Joel Penoyar said in his dissenting opinion that the statute covers situations in which the minor is not posing for a photo or video.
". . . I would not find any requirement that the defendant interact with the minor at the time of the filming," Penoyar said.
Prosecutors had said that Whipple's daughter-in-law found nude and semi-nude photos of the girl on his laptop computer in March 2006 while Whipple was visiting family members in Arizona.
Following a non-jury bench trial in October 2006 in which he found Whipple guilty, Verser sentenced Whipple to six months in jail and a year's probation.
Whipple has served both sentences.
Whipple was arrested on March 13, 2006, after his wife notified police, investigators said.
Whipple later told authorities that he lost the computer between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the Poulsbo motel where he was staying when he was arrested.
However, copies of some of the images were later recovered from the high school's computer server, in which materials from the school district laptop were routinely backed up.
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Reporter Erik Hidle can be reached at 360-385-2335 or erik.hidle@peninsuladailynews.com.
Port Townsend/Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew contributed to this story.
Last modified: August 09. 2008 9:00PM