Wednesday, June 2, 1999 | 10:32 a.m.
An 88-count child pornography and sexual assault case, that District Judge Jeff Sobel said left no room for a defense, has ended in a plea bargain that still could result in a life prison term for a 57-year-old illegal immigrant from Canada.
As a jury panel was lined up outside Sobel's courtroom Tuesday to begin the trial, David Donald Shumey reluctantly said he had no choice but to take the plea bargain that will at least give him a chance at parole.
Depending on the sentence he gets on Aug. 24, Shumey could serve as few as five years or as many as 38 years in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Probation is not an option since the charges require mandatory prison time.
Shumey, a Canadian who has been in the United States illegally for at least 30 years and living under several aliases, pleaded guilty to two counts of using a minor in the production of pornography and one count of sexual assault of a minor.
The girl was 7 and 8 at the time of the incidents in 1996 and 1997 while he was baby-sitting her at a low-income downtown apartment complex, according to Deputy District Attorney Gerald Gardner.
The events didn't come to light until July 1998 when a maintenance man at a downtown motel where Shumey was living discovered an album of child porn photos hidden in an air conditioning vent.
The maintenance man went to police, who obtained a search warrant and seized the evidence, Gardner said.
Sobel commented in court that he had looked through the case file in preparation for trial and couldn't see a defense to the charges.
"I gather you made a terrible mistake and (decided to plead guilty as) the lesser of two evils," the judge told Shumey. "If you had gone to trial, I believe there would have been no difference than you would have been convicted of all counts."
Although Shumey originally was charged with 88 felony counts of sexual assault on a minor and using that child in production of pornography, Gardner said the decision to offer the plea bargain was to spare the victim and the jury from the sordid details.
He said the girl would be forced to re-live the events and be questioned in detail if the trial had gone ahead as scheduled.
"Now the girl can go home and leave this behind her forever," Gardner said, adding that jurors would be spared from viewing pictures "I don't think anyone should have to see."
As part of the plea bargain, 85 of the counts will be dismissed when Shumey is sentenced.
The plea bargain was prompted last week when Sobel rejected a defense attempt to suppress dozens of Polaroid pictures of a man having sex with a young girl and statements Shumey made to police before he was read his rights.
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