Attorney says evidence in sex case is illegal

Thursday, April 15, 2004 | 9:08 a.m.

A defense attorney is trying to stop a videotape and all other evidence seized during a federal search from being used in the case of a former church camp counselor accused of child molestation.

Included in the evidence is a videotape that allegedly shows Harold Shaw, 59, sexually assaulting a 12- to 13-year-old relative, authorities said.

Osvaldo Fumo, Shaw's attorney, said the evidence was illegally obtained because the federal search warrant did not follow Nevada's requirement of either a list of facts establishing probable cause or an affidavit in support of the warrant. Fumo also said the necessary affidavit may not have been properly sealed under Nevada law.

"The federal warrant, on its face, violates the Nevada statutory scheme," and thus must be suppressed, Fumo says in his motion, filed Wednesday in Las Vegas Justice Court.

The incident on the videotape is believed to be from 1998 according to date and time records on the tape, and Fumo said he is also trying to get some of the accounts dismissed on the basis that the state has surpassed the statute of limitations. That motion has not been filed.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Craig Hendricks declined to comment on Fumo's motion. He has until April 20 to file a response and Las Vegas Justice Court Judge Deborah Lippis will hear arguments on the motion to suppress April 28. Shaw's preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 3.

Lippis declined to lower Shaw's $400,000 bail in a hearing Wednesday. Shaw remains in custody at the Clark County Detention Center.

Shaw was arrested in February after a joint task force of federal customs agents and Metro Police officers searched Shaw's home in the 1300 block of Seal Beach on suspicion of child pornography. The federal search warrant was issued after Shaw's credit card was linked to a Belarus-based Web site called Regpay that charged people's credit cards for access to more than 50 child pornography websites worldwide, authorities said.

No federal charges have been made against Shaw, but the seized videotape and other evidence led to Shaw's arrest on charges of three counts of sexual assault of a minor under 14, one count of lewdness with a minor under 14 and two counts of use of a minor in producing pornography.

In Shaw's home, police found a child's bedroom with a video camera set up even though Shaw does not have children, a police report says.

Shaw, who worked at a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints summer camp and was a gymnastics coach, also had several photos of young juvenile girls performing gymnastics. According to the police report, these photos focused on the female genitalia of the young girls.

Shaw was the first U.S. citizen arrested in the Las Vegas Valley in what has been touted by federal agents as a major international sting to crack down on sexual predators. Resident Mark Raffensparger, 47, has also been charged with receipt and possession of child pornography according to a federal indictment handed down in March.

Another 47 illegal immigrants or resident immigrants have also been arrested in the Regpay investigation. Nationwide, the sting has led to more than 2,000 arrests.