Defense attorneys for Steve Powell file trial witness list
Two investigators will testify on Steven Powell's behalf when the man's pornography and voyeurism trial gets underway next week, court documents show.
Powell's attorneys, Mark Quigley and Travis Currie, on Wednesday filed a preliminary witness list in Pierce County Superior Court in Tacoma, Wash.
The attorneys list Glenn Glover and Dave LaTourette — both investigators — are their witnesses. Glover is employed by the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel in Tacoma while LaTourette is a private investigator with DL Investigations based in North Bend, Wash.
LaTourette's company specializes in "criminal investigation, witness and associate interviewing, records and background checks, surveillance, and incident (crime, accident, traffic) photography," according to the company's Facebook page.
Powell, 61, is charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and one count of possessing an image of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Jury selection will start for Powell — who is the father-in-law of missing West Valley City woman Susan Cox Powell — on Monday. Judge Ronald E. Culpepper is presiding over the estimated eight-day proceeding, which is expected to draw media outlets from across the country.
Jury selection is expected to take one to two days, with about four days of trial after that. Jurors will then deliberate.
Culpepper set the stage for the trial to move forward last month when he ruled that evidence gathered from Powell's home in Puyallup, Wash., could be admitted at trial.
Attorneys had debated the constitutionality of a search warrant served by a Pierce County sheriff's detective at Powell's home, with defense attorneys calling it "overly broad" and prosecutors claiming police had probable cause to obtain the warrant.
During an initial court hearing for Steve Powell last fall, prosecutor Grant Blinn said Powell took images of girls as young as 8 years old over a 10-year span, although the court case focuses on voyeurism episodes from 2006 and 2007.
Powell, who has pleaded not guilty, is being held in the Pierce County jail on $200,000 bail.
Sheriff's deputies from Tacoma, Wash., arrested Steve Powell on Sept. 22, 2011, after detectives from West Valley City returned to search the home Powell shared with son Josh Powell, his grandsons and two other adult children, Alina Powell and John Powell.
The search warrants, recently unsealed, detail Steve Powell's sexual interest in his daughter-in-law, including assertions that he secretly filmed underneath her skirt and pasted photos of Susan Powell's head on images of nude bodies.
Prosecutors previously released a list of witnesses that they plan to call at the trial. Twelve of the 28 witnesses on the list are employed by West Valley City. Another eight witnesses are employed by the Pierce County Sheriff's Office, the document shows.
Those identified on the list as employees of the West Valley City Police Department include Ellis Maxwell, a detective who has been working on the case of Susan Powell since her 2009 disappearance. John Dietrich, John LeFavor, Mike McPhie, Michael Schwemmer, Michael Fossmo, Phil Quinlan, Steven Katz, William Merritt, Robert Bobrowski, Todd Gray and Tracy Catmull — all on the West Valley City police force — also appear to be witnesses, the document shows.
Other witnesses on the prosecutors' list are only identified by their initials — presumably the victims whom Steve Powell is accused of surreptitiously filming.
Jennifer Graves, Steve Powell's daughter who lives in West Jordan, is also expected to testify against her father at trial.
Susan Powell, 28, disappeared from her West Valley City home in December 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, 36, killed himself and his two young sons, ages 7 and 5, in February at his Graham-area rental home.
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