Three local men plead not guilty to child porn charges
A 38-year-old Columbia Falls man pleaded not guilty on July 18 to three counts of felony sexual abuse of children related to child pornography found on his home computer.
Travis Hinther faces up to 100 years in prison with no chance for parole in the first 25 years and a $50,000 fine for Count 2 because he was more than 18 years old and the victim was 12 or younger. The other two counts carry up to 10 years each in prison.
According to court records, the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a Madison County deputy on Nov. 12 last year informing them that child pornography was being downloaded from a shared file on a computer in Columbia Falls. The CenturyLink account and billing address belonged to Hinther.
The Flathead County Sheriff’s Office executed a search at Hinther’s home on Feb. 13. Hinther allegedly admitted at the time to downloading child pornography for several years, knowing that it was wrong and repeatedly trying to stop.
He allegedly told the deputies that his preference was for “teens” around 13 years old and admitted downloading child pornography two days before the search of his home. He said some videos showed adults having sex with children. A search of his computer turned up more than 800 images and 16 videos of child pornography.
Hinther moved to Columbia Falls about a year ago from Ferndale, Wash., and lived with his wife and children. He had no felony priors. Judge Robert Allison reduced his bail from $50,000 to $25,000 but Hinther was still in the county jail last week. His omnibus hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28.
On Aug. 1, a second Columbia Falls man, Lewis Packwood, 45, pleaded not guilty to two felony charges of sexual abuse of children after child pornography images were allegedly found on a thumb drive for his computer.
According to court documents, the images were found by Packwood's wife while she was going through the contents of the thumb drive. When confronted by his wife, Packwood allegedly said it was wrong and he knew it and that he thought he had deleted all the images.
Packwood later allegedly admitted to a detective that he possessed child pornography images and that some of the girls in the images appeared to be under 18. He also allegedly told a detective that he was undergoing counseling because of his attraction to a particular underage girl.
If convicted of both charges, Packwood faces up to 110 years in prison and a $60,000 fine and because of the ages of the victims not be eligible for parole for 25 years. He was still in the county jail last week.
Jon Crandall, 48, of Coram, pleaded not guilty on July 25 to one felony count of sexual abuse of children after 52 image files and 10 video files of child pornography were allegedly found on his computer.
According to court records, a Flathead County Sheriff's Office investigation in April 2011 uncovered a computer that was sharing files identified as child pornography. The investigators subpoenaed an Internet provider to track down the subscriber, which turned out to be Crandall.
Investigators searched Crandall's home in December 2011 and found a laptop computer that Crandall allegedly said was his. The child pornography files were stored on the laptop computer.
Crandall faces up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 28.