Judge: 'Step too far' in bus driver sex crime case
Dec. 30—CATLETTSBURG — A Boyd County Circuit Court Judge ruled Thursday that giving over the direct software information used to track a former Carter County Schools bus driver accused of downloading child sexual abuse material was a step too far.
However, Judge John Vincent ruled that defense attorney Tanner Hesterberg and experts enlisted in the case can look into studies and faulty reporting rates in the programming used to monitor folks distributing child sexual abuse material on the internet.
Darrin Rose, 39, of Catlettsburg, is facing multiple counts of possessing and distributing the materials — court records show he was found in possession of more than 1,400 images, some depicting infants.
On Thursday, Hesterberg tried to argue that the defense need to have the "source code" — essentially, how the programming runs — in order to see if it was working correctly.
Hesterberg said he wanted computer experts to analyze the programming to see if there were any errors or bugs in how it worked.
Vincent said he was concerned that allowing access to the code could inadvertently lead to it being leaked to the wider world. He said if it were to get out there, people could try to reverse-engineer it, allowing folks to download and and view child sexual abuse material without fear of prosecution.
In rulings by other courts regarding the disclosure of the programming, Vincent noted other judges had raised similar concerns.
"Having this out there could lead to law enforcement losing one of its most powerful tools for catching offenders viewing this evidence on the Internet," Vincent said.
Hesterberg said he understood the judge's concerns, but asserted if the code was turned over to the defense, he wouldn't even know what to do with it.
"To be honest, it's above my pay grade," Hesterberg said. "I can say if we were privy to it, we would not just release it out there for people to see it."
Vincent said he understood where the attorney was coming from, but allowing access to the code "is just a step too far."
However, Vincent said a release of peer reviews and reports on the failure rates of the programming was perfectly fine. If that evidence shows something awry, Vincent said he would revisit the question of making the code available.
"I'll let you go down that path and if you come across something, we can revisit it," Vincent said.
Assistant Boyd County Commonwealth's Attorney Christina Smith said she had no problems turning over the evidence outlined by the judge.
Due to all the technical computer evidence, Vincent sustained a motion to delay the case for jury trial until March 20, with a pretrial hearing set for Feb. 2.
(606) 326-2653 — henry@dailyindependent.com
