Opening statements held in trial of former Wrangell doctor

Dr. Greg Salard served as chief of staff at the Wrangell Medical Center. He's been charged with distribution and possession of child pornography. (Photo from the Alaska Island Community Services website)
Dr. Greg Salard served as chief of staff at the Wrangell Medical Center. He’s been charged with distribution and possession of child pornography. (Photo from the Alaska Island Community Services website)

Opening statements were held Wednesday in the jury trial of a former Wrangell doctor accused of possessing child pornography.

Greg Salard is facing three felony counts for receipt, possession and distribution of child porn.

Opening statements began after a 14-person jury was seated late Wednesday morning at the U.S. District Court in Juneau.

Prosecutor Leslie Fisher said the FBI monitored the use of a peer-to-peer file sharing program from an internet address that matched Salard’s residence in Wrangell. After obtaining a search warrant, an agent waited for a download of video at the residence before executing the warrant with a Forest Service officer.

Motion sensors in the driveway of Salard’s residence allegedly gave Salard a heads-up to start purging his computer before he finally opened the door to agents 8 minutes after they arrived. Fisher said Salard had previously downloaded hundreds of files of pre-teen hardcore porn.

Defense attorney Cara McNamara implored the jury to keep an open mind and think carefully about what she called “false allegations” in the case based on an “inexperienced agent interpreting” the evidence.

McNamara said Salard was not a sophisticated computer user, did not encrypt his files, and did not possess or distribute child porn. She said Salard is in the midst of a nightmare that he has yet to wake up from.

After opening statements, the prosecution’s first witness took the stand.

Joseph Versace, a special constable in the Child Sex Exploitation Unit with the Ontario Provincial Police, walked jurors through the use of the popular P2P or peer-to-peer file sharing program Ares, which prosecutors believe Salard used to download child pornography. Versace explained that multiple portions of a single audio or video file may be downloaded from multiple locations around the globe and then reassembled by the program when the download is complete.

Screenshot of peer-to-peer sharing program Ares shows portions of multiple copies of an audio file being downloaded for later assembly into a single complete file.
Screenshot of peer-to-peer sharing program Ares shows portions of multiple copies of an audio file being downloaded for later assembly into a single complete file.

Versace also provided a primer on hash values, the unique string of characters based on an algorithm that is considered the digital fingerprint of files transferred over the internet. Identical copies of a picture of a sunset, for example, may have different file names, but they will all have the same hash value if they are true copies of the same picture. However, if even a single pixel is changed in that picture, then the hash value will be completely different.

“That’s a huge change to a file,” Versace testified.

P2P programs use a file’s hash value to make sure that portions of the same, exact file are properly reassembled.

Ares is an open source program that can be freely examined and altered by anyone with a programming or software development background. Versace says he modified the program to create a version called Ares Roundup that is used by law enforcement to track transfers of child pornography. His version, however, does not allow the upload of contraband. It also limits downloads to a single IP or Internet Protocol address and prominently displays that address, which can be used to identify specific computers or other devices anywhere in the world.

Prosecutors signaled that they may recall Versace to the stand later after the FBI’s investigator testifies on Thursday.

Eight women and six men are part of the jury. They were whittled down from an original pool of 77 people from Juneau, Douglas, Sitka and Klawock.

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