Former Jodi Arias attorneys blamed for porn deletion

PHOENIX — On Monday, attorneys for Jodi Arias filed a motion alleging that thousands of pornographic files had been secretly deleted from victim Travis Alexander's computer while it was in police custody.

On Wednesday, Deputy Maricopa County Attorney Juan Martinez struck back, saying in his own motion that if any pornography was on the computer, it got there through computer viruses.

And if anything was deleted, Martinez claimed, it was deleted by Arias' former defense counsel.

June 19, 2009, is the date that current Arias attorney Kirk Nurmi noted in his motion as the time when the massive deletions took place. And on that day, Martinez wrote, Arias' first defense team, Maria Schaffer and Greg Parzych, came to the Mesa Police Department to view "a number of electronic items seized during the investigation, including the victim's Compaq Presario computer ..."

"If the history was altered, it was changed by defense counsel, not the state," Martinez added.

He was present when the attorneys examined the electronic items, Martinez acknowledged in court.

Schaffer, who has represented many high-profile defendants, including serial shooter Samuel Dieteman and 1991 Temple murders killer Johnathan Doody, told The Arizona Republic that she was "livid" at the allegation, but would not comment further.

Martinez also wrote that the hard drive was found to have 24 viruses and 17 malicious malware items. He also noted that some of the dates when porn sites were reportedly accessed were after Alexander was already dead.

And during a hearing Wednesday in Maricopa County Superior Court, Martinez he reasserted that police forensic analysis had detected no pornography on the computer.

In Wednesday's hearing, Nurmi said that his analysis of the computer was ongoing and he was not ready for an evidentiary hearing. He asked for two or three days of expert testimony later in the month.

"There is a plethora of evidence being uncovered by the expert," Nurmi said.

Meanwhile, Judge Sherry Stephens granted Martinez's motion asking that no witnesses be questioned about pornography on the computer until it is sorted out.