State v. Barger

After investigating a report that Barger (defendant) had sexually abused a child, police examined a copy of his computer's hard drive and found several images of naked children in the browser's temporary Internet file cache. The state charged Barger with eight counts of possessing or controlling child pornography, one for each image found in the cache. At trial, the state's own detectives conceded there was no way to know for certain whether Barger had intentionally accessed the images or whether they had appeared through pop-up ads or browser redirects. Barger moved for acquittal, arguing there was no evidence he knowingly downloaded, possessed, or controlled the images; the trial court denied the motion, and a jury convicted him. The court of appeals affirmed, and the Oregon Supreme Court took the case to decide the possession question.