Belant trial

◼ Child molestation trial for former youth leader begins 5/15/09
The trial of accused child molester Andrew Brian Belant began Thursday morning with an opening statement from Humboldt County District Attorney Paul Gallegos.
”Ultimately, this is a case about trust and the abuse of trust of four young boys in Humboldt County,” Gallegos told the panel of 12 jurors. “Mr. Belant profoundly violated the trust of the community, those little boys, the churches and the schools.”
During his opening statement, Gallegos described the case against the 26-year-old defendant. Belant has been accused of more than 20 charges related to child pornography and the abuse of four boys between the ages of 9 and 13 over a period of several months.
Gallegos said during the time of the alleged molestation, Belant was employed as an afterschool aide at a Bayside elementary school, a part-time youth leader at a Eureka church and a summer camp counselor in Humboldt County....

...Sheriff's Detective Troy Garey, who served the initial search warrant at Belant's residence, testified in court Thursday that when investigators entered Belant's bedroom, they discovered two laptops connected to an external hard drive, all in the process of being erased.

Garey testified the computers were quickly turned off and taken as evidence. Evidence technicians later found most of the computers' data had been erased. However, according to Gallegos, when computer technicians searched the unused space on the hard drives, they recovered several photographs allegedly depicting children in pornographic situations.

In one of the photos, Gallegos told the jury, a man who appears to be Belant is pictured with one of the alleged victims.

Another photograph reportedly found on Belant's computer allegedly depicts a person who appears to be Belant molesting an unknown child.

Belant's hard drives allegedly contained other lewd photographs depicting unknown male children, Gallegos said.
Although those photographs have been allowed by a judge to be used in the trial, they were not moved into evidence Thursday.

Belant's attorney, Andrew Truitt, withheld his opening statement Thursday....