Burgess Busted

heyenne - a federal magistrate on monday declined a prosecutor's request to jail the owner of a nevada brothel who is accused of possessing and transporting child pornography in wyoming. u.s. magistrate william c. beaman ordered david burgess, 55, to remain free on bail pending his scheduled feb. 4 trial in wyoming. jim anderson, assistant u.s. attorney, had urged beaman to jail burgess. anderson emphasized that burgess is a leader of the nevada chapter of the hells angels motorcycle gang. burgess is charged with possession and interstate transportation of child pornography and faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of both counts, according to court records. burgess pleaded not guilty to the counts monday. anderson also said burgess has no ties to wyoming and emphasized that burgess makes his living operating a brothel. "it's a legal occupation, but i would characterize it as an unsavory occupation," anderson said of burgess' ownership of the old bridge ranch, east of reno, nev.

passenger in motor home the wyoming highway patrol arrested burgess in july. according to a statement from the patrol, a trooper stopped a freightliner motor home known as the "war wagon" in which burgess was a passenger. the patrol reported that the trooper made the stop about three miles east of evanston because the motor home was hauling a trailer that had an expired registration tag. according to the highway patrol statement, the driver and burgess were members of the hells angels. both told police they were heading to the 2007 hells angels usa run in eureka springs, ark. according to the statement, officers found 14.9 grams of cocaine in the motor home. e. dean stout, uinta county prosecuting attorney in evanston, said monday that his office had filed a state drug charge against burgess in connection with the cocaine allegation. however, stout said his office moved to dismiss the state drug charge last month because the federal child pornography charges carry heavier penalties. stout said his office could refile the state drug charge if necessary. anderson said in court monday that a drug dog alerted to the motor home during the traffic stop. in addition to drugs, he said a search of a laptop computer found in the motor home determined it was "chock full" of child pornography.

"the computer hard drive reveals literally hundreds and hundreds of still images of children being sexually abused," anderson said. he said the images were placed in different folders and were highly organized.

no criminal history james barrett, assistant federal public defender, represented burgess at monday's hearing. "the government says they don't like mr. burgess - that's it," barrett said. he said burgess has no criminal history and is within his legal rights to operate a brothel in nevada and to associate with the hells angels. "that he is in a business of which mr. anderson and a number of others disapprove, well, that's a shame," barrett said of the brothel. he said everyone involved in prostitution at the brothel does so willingly. anderson said he questioned how burgess qualified for representation from the public defender's office. "it looks to me like the defendant's got a net worth of several million dollars," he said. beaman said the prosecution was free to file a petition in court questioning whether burgess qualified for services from the public defender's office. fbi agents raided burgess' home in reno in october, but officials declined at the time to say why. a federal grand jury indicted him this month shortly before his arrest in nevada. beaman ordered burgess to remain free on the conditions of release set earlier by a federal magistrate in nevada. john powell, spokesman for the u.s. attorney's office in cheyenne, said monday that the nevada court document setting burgess' conditions of release wasn't a public record and that he couldn't discuss the conditions. in addition to the unspecified nevada release conditions, beaman prohibited burgess from having unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and said burgess must allow random searches of his home computer. copyright © 2007 associated press. all rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. published on tuesday, november 27, 2007. last modified on 11/27/2007 at 12:47 am