A motion hearing in the child pornography posession case against former Albemarle High School JV girls’ soccer coach Raja Jabbour ended without a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon.
At stake was whether evidence obtained after an Ohio arrest in January 2004, including computer hard drives, would be admissible at trial. The defense team, which includes high-profile lawyer John Zwerling, argued that Jabbour’s arrest was improper. With an undercover Ohio cop from Tuscarawas County on the stand, attorneys on both sides spent hours poring over an expansive three ring binder of internet chats between Jabbour and the undercover, who posed as a mother of 12- and 7-year-old daughters.
Jabbour allegedly thought the woman would let him sexually “initiate” her daughters, and the prosecution highlighted several graphic chats on the topic. He drove to Ohio in January, with teddy bears in tow, where he was arrested outside a Pizza Hut. Yet Ohio prosecutors dropped the case for reasons that remain unclear. At the hearing, one of Jabbour’s attorneys, Andrea Moseley, led the undercover cop through chats that might suggest entrapment.
Judge Moon had issued no ruling by press time.