Although the trial for a 45-year-old Hutchinson man arrested back in August of last year for allegedly downloading child porn is scheduled for next week, it could still be decided without a jury.
Wayne Hegner waived his right to a preliminary hearing back in November on two counts of sexual exploitation of a child and entered “not guilty” pleas, however there are plea negotiations in the case and that could mean a deal is reached soon.
The case started with police investigating Hegner allegedly downloading the pictures using a website, Peer-to-Peer file sharing. It’s a website where people exchange and send each other this kind of material. This allegedly going on for over a year.
Police Detective Scott Carlton told us at the time of the arrest that he had been investigating the case for a couple of months prior to Hegner being taken into custody and a look at his computer showed a few hundred files of child porn.
Again, the trial is scheduled for next week and it may be a wait and see as to whether the case goes before a jury.