BEVERLY — The lawyer representing former Beverly Public Library director Thomas Scully has filed a motion to dismiss child pornography charges against his client, two weeks after prosecutors turned over previously undisclosed evidence in the case.
Ronald Ranta is arguing that the newly disclosed evidence, which involves images that were turned over to police by the foster father of a teenage boy Scully allegedly invited to his home, could have swayed grand jurors against indicting his client.
He also argues that prosecutors failed to tell the grand jury that indicted Scully in 2005 about "Trojan Horse" viruses found on Scully's computer by state police.
Scully's own expert, who found 150 viruses on Scully's computer during an independent examination, believes those viruses could have potentially taken control of Scully's computer and downloaded images, something the state police investigators concede is possible.
"I think that's extremely exculpatory," Ranta said outside court.
A hearing on the motion was scheduled for Oct. 14.
Shortly before what was supposed to be a final pretrial hearing in the case last month, prosecutor Michael Sheehan turned over the evidence to Ranta.
Up until that point, the case had been on track to go to trial.
But a day before the hearing, when the two sides would have normally picked a trial date, Beverly police turned over the evidence to Sheehan, who, the following morning, showed it to Ranta.
It remains unclear when police first received the evidence. The department's spokesman, Patrolman John McCarthy, would not answer questions about the apparent delay during an interview last month.
Scully, 60, is facing charges of possessing and disseminating child pornography to a minor, a teenage boy who told police he met Scully at the library. The teenager told police that Scully caught him looking at inappropriate Web sites on a library computer and suggested he come to Scully's home, where he said he viewed pornographic images on Scully's personal computer.
Earlier this year, prosecutors in Suffolk County dropped child pornography charges against a former state worker who lost his job after images were found on his state-issued laptop computer. The charges were dropped after authorities concluded it was infected with computer viruses.
Ranta filed the motion yesterday under seal, citing a state law that he believes requires him to seek the impoundment of any materials that refer to grand jury testimony.
That law is apparently little-known among lawyers on the North Shore. Information from grand jury presentations is often the basis of pretrial motions to dismiss or suppress evidence in cases. While sometimes the minutes of the grand jury proceedings are sealed, the motions themselves, which contain legal arguments, are generally not.
Those motions are also usually argued in open court. No request has been made to close the Oct. 14 hearing.
If any part of the motion is allowed, it would be the second major blow to the case since Scully's indictment.
A year after the indictment, a charge of indecent assault and battery was dismissed.
A judge found that an investigator had, "putting it delicately, made an inadvertent stretch" of the evidence when he described a pat by Scully on the teen's backside, the alleged indecent assault. Judge David Lowy said the grand jury did not get relevant details they needed at the time to make a fair decision about whether to indict Scully.
