Vail porn case set for trial

Gillie appeared in Eagle County District Court Monday afternoon for a disposition hearing with one of his two attorneys, Blake Lynch of the Edwards-based firm of Larsen and Lynch.

Lynch told Eagle County Judge Terri S. Diem that he and Chief Deputy District Attorney John Clune have been unable to settle the case out of court.

Gillie is now scheduled to go on trial July 24, charged with sexual exploitation of a child.

Sexual exploitation of a child is a misdemeanor offense typically leveled against people found in possession of pornography depicting children.

Lynch had no comment following the hearing. He did say, however, that his client has pleaded not guilty to the sexual exploitation charge.

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A fraud charge against Gillie was dropped by the district attorney’s office back in January after an investigation by the Vail Police Department failed to come up with enough evidence to substantiate it.

Gillie was arrested Sept. 14 on suspicion that he used money from escrow accounts he managed at the time to purchase gifts for an employee of a Czech Republic-base Web site offering child pornography. A search of Gillie’s office, according to the court file, turned up child pornography on computer disks, as well as correspondence with the Web site employee.

The investigation was launched last summer after a former employee of Pinnacle Resorts Systems, a Vail property management company Bruce co-owns and operates, told police investigators that Gillie had downloaded child pornography on his office computer.

During an interview the former employee, identified as an accountant of Pinnacle, told investigators that as much as $8,000 had been taken account belonging to 9 Vail Road, a 27-unit condominium complex, to buy jewelry, a computer and flowers for a female employee of “Club 17,” a reputed pornographic Web site based in the Czech Republic.

Lynch and Denver-based attorney David Lane have maintained that the embezzlement charge against Gillie could never be substantiated and that the alleged child porn charge cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

“There’s no proof that Bruce Gillie ever knew they were on the disk or that he put them there,” Lane said back in January. “And there is no proof it’s kiddie porn.”

Investigators have said the images depict young girls, but Lane says it is hard to determine whether the females in the pictures are under-age. Gillie is scheduled to return to county court June 19 for a pre-trial hearing.

Geraldine Haldner covers Vail, Minturn and Red Cliff. She can be reached at (970) 949-0555, ext. 602 or at ghaldner@vaildaily.com