PORT TOWNSEND — Former Chimacum High School Principal Rex Whipple testified on Thursday that he denied to his wife that he took nude photos of his stepdaughter.
Whipple took the stand in his own defense on the fourth day of testimony in Jefferson County Superior Court on 10 counts of possessing depictions of a minor in sexually explicit conduct.
The defense rested its case Thursday.
The non-jury trial will resume before Judge Craddock Verser on Wednesday with county Prosecuting Attorney Juelie Dalzell, who rested her case earlier this week, calling four additional witnesses.
Whipple said he learned the computer contained nude images of his 15-year-old stepdaughter from a telephone call his wife made to him on March 11 while he was in Arizona visiting his son and daughter-in-law.
He was driving and pulled the car over to check the computer to see if the images were there.
They were, and the remote had been activated, he said.
He called his wife back.
“I told her there were nude pictures of [the stepdaughter] there,” Whipple recalled while on the stand.
He said his wife asked him if he had taken the photos and put them on the computer.
“I said ‘no.’
“She asked why I did it and I said I didn’t do it.”
