The Seattle Times
One of three Seattle brothers accused of possessing a massive collection of sexually-explicit images of children pleaded not guilty during his arraignment Thursday in King County Superior Court.
Thomas Emery, 80, entered the pleas to two counts of second-degree possession of depictions of minors engaged in sexual conduct. His next court date is Sept. 26. He is being held in jail in lieu of $500,000 bail.
His brother, Charles Emery, 82, also appeared in court but did not enter a plea because his defense attorney, Jesse Dubow, requested that he be sent to Western State Hospital for a competency evaluation.
Judge Sean O’Donnell signed the order to transfer Charles Emery but noted the hospital “is chronically delayed in admitting individuals.” A conference to discuss the status of his case was tentatively set for Sept. 21.
A third brother, Edwin Emery, 78, is being treated at Harborview Medical Center and is under guard, according to senior deputy Prosecutor Cecelia Gregson. His arraignment was continued until Tuesday.
The reason for the hospitalization wasn’t disclosed.
Charging papers filed against the men said a search of their home turned up sexually explicit images and videos of young girls, along with girls’ clothing, shoes, toys and handwritten notes about girls being kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed.
One of the men’s relatives contacted Seattle police on Aug. 9 after finding boxes of pornographic materials in the garage of the house the three brothers have shared since 1962. The relative is the legal guardian of Charles Emery, who was moved into a senior residential home because of his dementia, the charges say.
Following the search of the brothers’ two-story Victorian house near Green Lake, the Seattle Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force reported finding the sexual images of children along with dozens of pairs of girls’ penny loafers, panties and toys. They also found a single-serving vodka bottle and a note indicating the alcohol had been given to a child victim to facilitate her sexual abuse, according to the charges.
In the house’s crawl space, detectives also found a girl’s pink hat partially buried in the dirt, along with a handwritten note that had been burned but was similar to other notes in the house about sex abuse and homicide, charging papers say.
Police have also searched a Shelton property owned by the Emerys’ older brother, where Charles Emery had reportedly stored some of his possessions. Public records show that the older brother, Don Emery, was 85 when he died last year.
According to Mason County property records, the deceased brother’s dilapidated three-bedroom home sits on three acres along Highway 3.
Capt. Mike Edwards, the commander of the statewide ICAC Task Force, said Thursday there have been no new developments in the case but detectives continue to sift through a voluminous amount of evidence.
Detectives have identified some of the children pictured in the sexually explicit photographs, but there are many more they’re trying to identify, Edwards said. Some of the materials date to the 1980s and possibly the 1970s, he said.
Grays Harbor County Undersheriff Dave Pimentel said his agency is in contact with investigators in Seattle and Mason County to see if there’s a possible link between the Emery brothers and the 2009 disappearance of 10-year-old Lindsey Baum as she was walking home from a friend’s house.
There’s nothing specific to indicate a connection, but Grays Harbor County investigators are interested in the Seattle case because of the nature of the allegations against the brothers and the proximity of the Shelton property to where Lindsey vanished, Pimentel said.
