Child-porn trial ready for defense

After a full day of testimony, the United States rested its prosecution of a Rison man accused of producing child pornography after his ex-wife discovered a video camera hidden inside a bathroom vent and subsequently discovered videos of several female family members, including a 15-year-old girl, naked in the bathroom of the family home in Benton.

Matthew Caleb McCoy, 30, is charged with two counts of production of child pornography involv

ing two videos of the girl that were discovered on a thumb drive along with other videos and still images. During the day, jurors heard testimony from McCoy’s ex-wife, Holly McCoy, and from the girl — now 19 years old — identified as “M.B.”

On Tuesday morning, McCoy’s attorney, Christophe Tarver of the Federal Public Defenders Office in Little Rock challenged the government’s assertion that the videos in question constituted child pornography. In his opening statement he said McCoy had placed surveillance cameras in various locations throughout the couple’s home — including the master bathroom and guest bathroom — because he suspected his wife of having an affair.

It was that placement of cameras, Tarver said, that had inadvertently captured M.B. in the shower.

“I’m not here to tell you that this isn’t a serious offense. It is,” Tarver said. “[But] mere nudity is not child pornography.”

Throughout the day, Tarver repeatedly challenged attempts to place still images of other women, including McCoy’s exwife, mother-in-law, sisterin-law and a non-family member into evidence.

Those attempts were largely unsuccessful, but enabled Tarver to continually challenge prosecutors’ argument that McCoy’s intent was to produce child pornography.

Assistant U.S. attorneys Kristin Bryant and John Ray White argued that numerous screen shots of the videos that were entered into evidence gave proof of McCoy’s intent to produce pornographic images. Bryant described Holly McCoy’s experience as her brotherin-law discovered a camera inside the guest bathroom vent that he was trying to repair and the discovery of the videos on a thumb drive that was among her ex-husband’s possessions that she had packed up.

“That’s when her world was turned upside down,” Bryant said. “Holly discovered that the defendant had placed hidden cameras in their guest bathroom, their master bathroom and their master bedroom.”

Bryant said the videos Holly McCoy discovered in December 2019 depicted herself, her mother, her sister, M.B., and an elderly woman unknown to her in various stages of undress, including fully nude. At that point, Bryant said, Holly McCoy contacted the Bryant police.

Dustin Derrick, a Benton Police Department detective, described the contents of a Lexar 16 gigabyte thumb drive containing videos and images purportedly taken from one of two DVR units connected to the surveillance cameras installed in the home.

Derrick described videos and still photos on the thumb drive depicting Holly McCoy’s mother, sister, M.B., and an elderly woman who was a customer of Matthew McCoy’s father’s security company in the nude.

“Based on that you charged him with child pornography and 30 counts of video voyeurism?” White asked.

“Yes,” Derrick responded.

Those state charges were dismissed when McCoy was federally indicted on the two charges of production of child pornography.

As the videos depicting M.B. were played, all video monitors facing the gallery were either disabled or turned away to ensure that only the jury and court personnel could view the videos.

Holly McCoy testified that she met Matthew McCoy at the University of Central Arkansas in 2009 and the two were married in 2016. Their son, Miles, was born about a year later on Oct. 12, 2017, she said.

She said the couple’s marital problems began about the time their son was born and escalated quickly. In December 2018, she filed a petition for a protection order from her husband after she said he pointed a pistol at her while she was holding their infant son in the garage of their home.

“I had no idea there was a gun in there,” she said. “Never seen it. Didn’t know he had it.”

Holly McCoy described her husband as “paranoid” that she might be cheating on him, suggesting that the surveillance cameras were there to keep an eye on her.

“I didn’t know where the camera was, I just know there was a camera because when I would be feeding my son or doing things with him I would get text messages,” she testified.

“It was clear that he was watching me.”

As Tarver questioned her, trying to determine that she knew cameras were installed in the house, Holly McCoy said she was told the camera in the living room was installed because her husband said he was worried about the family dog with a newborn and wanted to keep an eye on things.

She said she discovered a cache of cameras and digital media among his possessions about the time he moved out in December 2018. After the discovery of the camera in the guest bathroom vent, she said, she began looking through the storage media to see what it contained.

“I never would have looked at them if I hadn’t found the camera in the vent,” she said.

During M.B.’s testimony, the girl said she had gone to the McCoy home on Oct. 14, 2017, to see the couple’s newborn son. During that visit, she said, in which she spent the night, she took a shower the following morning and was directed by McCoy to use the master bathroom because the bathtub in the guest bathroom was filled with toys for the McCoys’ 3-day-old son.

At first, M.B. seemed unsure if she had spent the night at the McCoy home but later said she had taken a shower the following morning.

“It was just a normal day so I don’t remember a lot of the details,” she said as Tarver pressed her for details of the visit.

After the jury was dismissed for the day, Bryant rested the prosecution’s case, paving the way for Tarver’s defense to begin first thing this morning. Tarver, saying prosecutors had failed to provide sufficient evidence to maintain their case, asked the judge for a judgment of acquittal, which the judge denied.

“I’m going to let the charges go to the jury,” he said.

Defense arguments begin this morning, followed by closing statements from both sides, at which time the case will be placed in the hands of the jury.

Tarver said he does not intend to call any witnesses, and McCoy said he does not intend to testify.