TACOMA - The voyeurism trial against Steven Powell is set to resume Monday.
Powell has been charged with 14 counts of voyeurism after police say a 2011 search warrant of his Puyallup, Wash., home found thousands of images and videos of woman and young girls, most taken without their knowledge, and many of a pornographic nature. A Washington judge dropped a single child pornography charge against Powell.
A jury was selected on Monday and Tuesday of last week and the trial began Wednesday. Prosecutors showed the jury thousands of voyeuristic images allegedly taken by Powell, including of two young girls who lived in Powell's neighborhood.
Those two young girls and their mother testified against him, in addition to the investigators from the Pierce County Sheriff's Office who executed that search warrant.
Steven Powell's estranged daughter Jennifer Graves and police officers from the West Valley City Police Dept. are set to testify on Monday.
The Powell family has been the subject of a well-known case involving the disappearance of Susan Powell, Steven's daughter-in-law. She went missing in early Dec. 2009 and her husband Josh, who killed himself and the couple's two sons in February, is the sole person of interest in that disappearance.
But some people, including Graves and Susan's parents Chuck and Judy Cox, suspect that Steven may have been involved in Susan's disappearance.
"I'm sure he was involved. Definitely," said Chuck Cox during a Fox News interview on Saturday.
Further evidence seized from the Powell home suggests Steven has a sexual obsession with Susan. Court documents list images and video of Susan, some taken without her knowledge and some sexually suggestive, and Steven's often pornographic thoughts on his daughter-in-law.
The voyeurism case against Steven is not focused on Susan Powell, but on images allegedly taken in his Washington neighborhood. The judge warned prosecutors and defense attorneys not to focus on Susan's disappearance and advised the jury to disregard the issue in their consideration of Steven's verdict.
Fox 13's Ben Winslow is in Washington and will be posting live updates from the trial on Fox13now.com and via twitter at @BenWinslow.
