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Monrovia man in jail on child porn charges granted bail

Frederick News-Post - 3/28/2020

Mar. 28--A Monrovia resident and Navy veteran who was denied bail last week after his arrest on child porn charges was granted bail at a second hearing held Friday in Frederick County District Court.

Gary Edward Davis, 47, again appeared before Judge Dino E. Flores Jr. in a hearing late Friday morning in which Davis' private defense attorney, James N. Papirmeister, once more laid out a comprehensive set of guidelines under which he said his client could be safely released from jail. Meanwhile, Assistant State's Attorney Rebecca Clinton maintained that Davis should remain behind bars for the safety of the community, especially at a time when children are home from school due to COVID-19 closing schools and given that none of the children depicted in the files Davis was linked to had been identified as of Friday.

Clinton also argued that, given Davis' experience as a cybersecurity official in the military and later as vice president of a cybersecurity consulting company, she was not comfortable with him having access to the internet, laptops or other devices that could lead him to commit further crimes.

Davis was arrested March 13 after a months-long investigation identified him as the person distributing several files containing child pornography in an online chat group. Davis eventually admitted being the owner of the username under investigation when local authorities arrived at his home with a search warrant, according to a previous story in The Frederick News-Post.

Papirmeister countered Clinton's arguments by suggesting the judge add a provision that no new devices be purchased by Davis upon his release. However, due to the viral outbreak and Papirmeister's conditions that Davis be enrolled in treatment for what the defense attorney referred to as a pornography addiction, the defense was not willing to agree to a condition that Davis have no access to a computer, suggesting instead that Davis be allowed to use a computer only under direct supervision by either his wife or another relative who lives with him.

Ultimately, Flores granted a $25,000 unsecured bail, meaning Davis will not be required to post any money to secure his release, but could be ordered to pay the full amount if he fails to appear in court.

"This is not something that is done lightly," Flores cautioned Davis, who appeared via video conference call from jail.

Flores still imposed strict conditions on Davis' release, including that he have no contact of any kind with minors, that he submit to electronic monitoring, that he must seek immediate treatment as needed following an evaluation, allow the installation of anti-porn technology on every electronic device in his home and that he have no unsupervised access to a computer or similar device.

Follow Jeremy Arias on Twitter: @Jarias_Prime.

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