WILLMAR -- A special agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service described images of children less than 18 years of age engaged in sexual activity with other children or with adults in the trial of a former youth baseball coach accused of possessing child pornography.
Special agent Daniel Schwarz based his judgment of the youthfulness of the children in the images on training in child development, 10 years of investigating 75 to 100 child porn cases and reviewing hundreds of thousands of images while working in the Minneapolis office.
He testified Tuesday in the trial of 43-year-old Blair D. Hoiland of Willmar, who is charged with 16 counts of possessing and downloading child pornography from the Internet.
In the past, Hoiland has coached Minnesota Sports Federation youth traveling baseball, according to Tribune archives. He has also been involved in youth hockey.
Hoiland has pleaded not guilty and requested a trial by judge, rather than trial by jury. Judge Kathryn Smith is presiding.
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The case is being prosecuted in Kandiyohi County District Court by Daniel Vlieger, assistant state attorney general. John Mack of New London is representing Hoiland.
The trial will end today. Vlieger said he has finished calling witnesses. Mack said his client will testify today. The judge said she has seven days to issue a decision.
Schwarz was part of the investigation that included computer and forensic experts in the Willmar Police Department, St. Paul Police Department and the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
The charges stem from an investigation that began in October 2003 when a task force officer began looking into a suspect who was actively viewing and uploading child pornography through the Internet, according to the criminal complaint.
Task force investigator Sgt. Bill Haider of the St. Paul Police Department said he had received 13 tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which documented the suspect's actions. Under a 2002 federal law, Internet service providers are required to report incidents of individuals obtaining child porn through the Internet, he said.
The center sends the tips to law enforcement agencies in the state where the child pornography is being viewed, uploaded from one computer to another or possibly downloaded into a computer. The tips include information on the Internet service provider, the Internet protocol and the Internet protocol address, which is the address of the particular computer.
Haider determined from information gathered from the Internet service provider that the subscriber at the Internet protocol address viewing child pornography was Hoiland at his home at 1005 Olena Ave. S.E.
Haider notified Willmar police about his investigation on Feb. 26, 2004. Police received various materials from Haider on March 1, 2004, including images allegedly viewed by Hoiland. The criminal complaint states that Haider said some of the juveniles displayed in the images had been identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and were confirmed to be under the age of 18 when the photos were taken.
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Willmar police executed a search warrant of Hoiland's home on March 2, 2004, and seized his computer equipment and two CDs.
Matt Heinsch, a St. Paul Police Department forensic scientist who works with the task force, testified Tuesday that he analyzed the hard drive from Hoiland's computer and saw 300 images of child pornography. The computer logs the time and date when an image is stored on the hard drive, he said. Also found were images of Hoiland and a video in a music file, he said.
Mack asked Heinsch if he could determine if hackers can place information on the hard drive. Heinsch said he looked for evidence of hacking but did not find any.
Mack asked if images could be manipulated. Heinsch said images could be manipulated, but he could not be certain if they were or not. "It is possible,'' he said.
During his testimony, Schwarz described what he saw depicted in the images presented by Vlieger. He based his determination on facial features and development of the individuals, among other things.
He said one female and four males were identified in five images as known victims. "All are images of child pornography,'' he said.
Willmar Police Capt. David Wyffels, who also had advanced computer training, said he viewed some of the images that he felt depicted child pornography. He couldn't determine if the images came from e-mail or from an Internet site.
Matthew Martin, 22, and Timothy Martin, 20, who were living with Hoiland when police searched his home, said they had used Hoiland's computer, along with their friends, but they did not know his Internet search engine password.
