SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A child pornography charge has been dropped against Steven Powell.
Powell still faces 14 counts of voyeurism, stemming from photos recovered from his Puyallup, Washington home last August. The photos and video were taken from Powell's computers and other electronic devices.
Police say Powell took the photos of neighbor girls in various states of dress near his home and that the girls were unaware that he was photographing them.
Powell's trial began on Monday with jury selection.
A judge ruled that the children in the photographs were sometimes nude, they were not engaged in sexual acts or pornographic situations.
The photos were recovered by West Valley City Police investigators during a raid to collect evidence over the disappearance of Steven's daughter-in-law Susan Cox Powell.
"I wasn't surprised," Chuck Cox told ABC 4 News. "The judge was leaning in that direction this morning."
The Voyeurism charges still carry a heavy prison sentence if Powell is convicted. Each count carries a one-to-four year prison sentence. And Cox agrees it could open the door for a plea bargain.
But if there is one, Cox wants Powell to spend a long time in prison.
"I want a deal that puts him in prison for a long time," Cox says. "I want him to him do time and not get out."
Cox says a plea bargain that offers information of his daughter, Susan's whereabouts in exchange for a short prison sentence won't be adequate.
"I am not interested if he gets out in one year, twenty years is fine with us,"
Cox says.
Anne Bremner, the Cox family attorney isn't hopeful that Steven Powell will offer anything.
"He's facing a lot of prison time and he is still defiant," says Bremner. "He isn't backing down."
Susan Cox Powell disappeared from her WVC home in December of 2009.
Her husband and Steven's son Josh Powell was a person of interest in her case until he took the lives of the couple's 2 young sons and killed himself in February.
