Salard trial date moved to February

The trial of Greg Salard has been pushed back by seven weeks to Feb. 23, 2015, following a request for delay by his defense attorney. Originally set for Jan. 5, Salard's federal defense attorney Cara McNamara wanted the jury trial's date moved so an expert in computer forensics can review the evidence gathered by prosecutors.

The former physician is facing two felony counts of sexual exploitation of a child after being arrested at his Wrangell home Oct. 15 by state, local and federal law enforcement officers. Salard appeared in U.S. District Court in Juneau Oct. 28 to be arraigned and indicted on charges of distributing and possessing child pornography. Salard's counsel pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The affidavit for his arrest alleges an IP address linked Salard to a peer-to-peer file sharing network exchanging illicit digital material. Between February 1 and October 5 the Federal Bureau of Investigation said he had made available at least 104 files containing videos and images suspected of being child pornography.

The report states a laptop in Salard's home at the time of the search was in the process of having its files erased. Two illicit files were initially found on the computer and that a more detailed examination located 25 other files which had been deleted.

After his arrest, Alaska Island Community Services suspended Salard and Wrangell Medical Center suspended his hospital privileges. Up to that point, Salard had been a physician specializing in family practice employed by Alaska Island Community Services, and was chief of staff at the medical center since July 2013.

If convicted of distribution, Salard faces a maximum statutory penalty of not less than five and up to 20 years imprisonment. If convicted of possession, he faces a maximum statutory penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment.

In addition, both counts carry fines of up to $250,000 as well as the possibility of a lifetime period of supervised release following any sentence of imprisonment. Any sentence, however, would be determined at the discretion of the court after consideration of any applicable statutory factors

and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which take

into account a number of variables.