St. Charles man found guilty of owning child porn

A St. Charles man and former gymnastics coach was convicted Thursday of nine counts of possession of child pornography.

Vernor P. Gumila, 40, listened as Kane County Judge Timothy Q. Sheldon announced his verdict following Tuesday's bench trial.

Gumila was arrested in October 2007. At the time, he was a coach at Gymkhana Gymnastics Club and Dance Studio in Hanover Park.

The judge ruled that evidence of website cookies and Internet favorites on the hard drive of Gumila's computer indicated he had possession - as opposed to merely viewing images - of the child pornography.

According to prosecutors, there were 53 cookies found, and the cookies recorded more than 80 visits to various sites. An Internet favorites list marked sites that included words such as "Lolita," "Lola," "Lolly" and "preteen," combined with terms of sex acts, in their names.

Sheldon said he viewed the cookies, and "they are replete with websites of child pornography." He said that Gumila had the ability to retrieve the images from temporary Internet folders for the images, which was key to the legal definition of possession.

Defense attorney Michelle Moore said after the verdict that "there were not a lot of indicia that he (Gumila) knew the stuff was on there." She argued during the trial that the images could have ended up there if Gumila's roommate used his computer.

The roommate, Shawn C. Bowlden, was the subject of a child pornography investigation by federal law enforcement officers. He had been a coach at St. Charles Gymnastics Academy. While searching their apartment for the Bowlden case, St. Charles police asked permission to search Gumila's computer and digital camera, and he agreed. Thirteen images of child pornography were found on the computer.

Bowlden pleaded guilty in 2008, and was sentenced to 21/2 years of sex offender probation.

Bowlden testified during Gumila's trial that he never used Gumila's computer nor downloaded images to it.

Sheldon found Gumila not guilty on four of the counts, because the image folders had been lost, according to the prosecution's computer expert.

Gumila remains free on $25,000 bond. Sentencing is set for Nov. 3.