PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Pierce County, Wash. prosecutors office announced Monday that Steven Powell’s possession of child pornography charge has been reinstated.
Powell, 64, was arrested Monday morning and is scheduled to appear in court at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“We were always confident the child pornography charges were proper, and we are pleased the higher court agreed,” said Prosecutor Mark Lindquist in a statement sent to FOX 13. “Mr. Powell should be held fully accountable for grossly violating the privacy of his young neighbors.”
In 2012, Powell was charged with 14 counts of voyeurism and possession of depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct for surreptitiously taking inappropriate photos of two young girls who lived next door.
A judge dismissed the latter charge in May of that year because he found that the images did not constitute “sexually explicit conduct,” according to a press release from the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Powell was found guilty on all 14 counts of voyeurism and served a little less than two years in the Washington State Prison. He was released from prison in March 2014.
Law enforcement officials found the photos of the neighborhood children during a search of Powell’s home for evidence about his missing daughter-in-law, Susan Cox Powell, who disappeared from her home in West Valley City in December of 2009.
