Survivor star Skupin's child pornography trial begins
The jury trial is underway for former reality TV star Michael Skupin, who has been charged with six counts of child sexual abusive material.
This is the first of two trials that will take place in Oakland County Circuit Court. In 2012 FOX 2 reported Skupin regarding what looked like a Ponzi scheme. A week later he was arrested regarding that alleged scheme.
After confiscating his computers, the Attorney General's office said they found pornography.
Thursday was day one of Michael Skupin's first trial exclusively dealing with child pornography. The attorney general's office says it was found on Skupin's last top computers.
On Thursday prosecutor Alison Hertog brought out some of the images allegedly found on Skupin's computers.
A forensics computer expert identified several images of prepubescent girls he says he found on Skupin’s hard drives.
Hertog: "Can you tell me about this picture?"
"It's also a temporary internet file that was accessed and viewed at 12:17, 2013, at 10:02," he said.
The state is painting a grim picture of the former Survivor star. The Attorney General's Office had his home under surveillance on Dec. 17, 2013.
Agents said they watched as Skupin's wife and children left for work and school. Skupin never left and began accessing child porn around 10:00 a.m. He also wrote out e-mails and was on Facebook.
Another expert computer witness said that the Facebook postings started at 12:34 p.m. and they continue to 12:52 p.m. A few minutes later they say Skupin was back accessing child pornography.
At about 2:30 agents entered the home and confiscated the laptop which was located under a pile of clothes in a plastic bin.
Skupin's wife at the time who is now his ex-wife, and one of his step-children testified no one in the house ever used Mike's computer's but him. Friday, the defense will present their case.
Skupin is out on $350,000 bond. His attorney is a court appointed attorney. This is a jury trial they expect the case to go to the jury Friday afternoon.
The case scheduled for next week will be for his financial fraud charges.