PORT ANGELES — A June trial date has been set for Jeromiah Flores on charges of possession of child pornography and voyeurism.
Flores, 40, of Port Angeles, entered a plea of not guilty at his arraignment in Clallam County Superior Court on Friday.
A tentative trial date has been set for June 6, with a status hearing scheduled April 7.
Flores was charged on Feb. 16 with two counts of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the second degree, two counts of voyeurism, and one count of possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct in the first degree.
If he is convicted, the charges carry a combined sentence of up to 10 years in jail and a $20,000 fine.
Flores bailed out on Feb. 14 with a $25,000 bond. Another condition of Flores’s release was the issuance of a no-contact order, preventing him from contacting the alleged victims and their families.
The trial is expected to last between five and 10 days.
“This is really the kind of case that’s going to be expert-dependent,” said Flores’ attorney Karen Unger, “and we’re going to have to find some, obviously, given the nature of the offense and the involvement of high tech equipment and analysis that is going to be necessary.
“There are a lot of parts to this case,” Unger said.
Prosecuting attorney Matthew Robertson agreed that the case was complex.
“Given the nature of the charges, both the voyeurism and the other ones, I would say the state’s case would prefer five days because it is also my experience that the jury selection in these types of cases, to get a fair and impartial jury, can take a day and half or even two days, without COVID protocols,” Robertson said.
The investigation into Flores began in fall 2020 when the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office received a call from the parent of a girl who told them Flores had taken pictures of her and her sister’s genitals while he thought both were asleep during a sleepover with his daughter.
In October 2020, a warrant to investigate Flores’s home was granted.
Investigators said they found a bag of women’s and children’s underwear along with pornographic magazines in a shed on Flores’s property.
Included in that warrant was a search of Flores’s devices and home computer.
A software program used by the Washington State Patrol, which searched the computer, allegedly found 15 images of child pornography on Flores’s computer; 35 more images allegedly were found by Clallam County sheriff’s investigators when the computer was turned over to them in June 2021.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at kpark@peninsuladailynews.com.