Child pornography charges dropped against Gordon

Remaining charges against VDOT official dropped

Date published: 6/27/2008

BY KEITH EPPS

The final three charges against a Virginia Department of Transportation official have been dropped.

The possession of child pornography charges facing Jerry W. Gordon went away yesterday in Stafford Circuit Court after a judge granted a motion to suppress evidence against Gordon gathered via a search warrant.

V. James Ventura, Gordon's attorney, successfully argued that the affidavit for the search warrant was defective.

He made the same argument a few months ago in Spotsylvania, when 10 more child pornography charges against Gordon were dismissed.

Charges involving the actual molestation of the child had already been dropped.

Gordon, a regional safety engineer with VDOT, had been under a cloud since August 2004, when a 4-year-old child reported that Gordon and a teenager had sexually molested her.

Gordon was indicted in Spotsylvania in December 2006 and in Stafford the following month.

The cases were continued a number of times and fell apart in Spotsylvania earlier this year when Judge David H. Beck ruled that the affidavit used to secure the search warrant against Gordon was defective, in part because it was too vague.

The search warrant was used to confiscate one computer in Stafford and another in Spotsylvania. The computers reportedly turned up multiple images of nude children.

Without that evidence, prosecutors in neither locality had the evidence needed for a conviction.

Spotsylvania Commonwealth's Attorney Bill Neely said there were other problems were the case as well, including the child's sketchy memory and the fact that others had access to the computers.

The developments in Spotsylvania made yesterday's hearing in Stafford a foregone conclusion, since the same affidavit was used in both localities.

Keith Epps: 540/374-5404
Email: kepps@freelancestar.com

Follow us on

Read more stories about Stafford
Date published: 6/27/2008