A federal grand jury has indicted a Vancouver man — already facing trial in Clark County on allegations of abusing two young children — on 17 counts of child pornography-related charges.

The grand jury returned the indictment Wednesday charging Michael Scott Norris, a former youth minister and Bible camp counselor, with 11 counts of production of child pornography relating to sexual tapes he allegedly produced of a 10-year-old girl and her 11-year-old brother, whom he met at church.

Norris, 44, also was charged with three counts of receipt of child pornography relating to other graphic tapes he had allegedly obtained and three counts of possession of child pornography relating to hard-drive images reportedly found on his computer.

Norris remains in custody in the Clark County Jail, awaiting a March 21 trial in Clark County Superior Court on 13 child rape and molestation charges.

Deputy Prosecutor Alan Harvey said Norris’ local charges will be handled before the federal charges.

A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Friday the reason for the delay in charges was because Norris is already in custody and could face a significant sentence in connection to the Clark County case.

Norris has been waiting to go to trial on his local case since August 2006. But the case has been stalled over an evidence dispute: Harvey, citing a federal law precluding him from dispersing child pornographic tapes, did not give the tapes to defense attorney Clay Spencer, who needs them to prepare a defense and move forward to trial.

The dispute caused the case to be continually delayed.

To get the case back on track, Norris filed a pre-trial appeal to the Court of Appeals, which ruled last summer that prosecutors are required by state law to hand over the tapes.

Harvey appealed that decision to the Washington Supreme Court, but the higher court denied review. Norris also appealed to the Supreme Court, requesting dismissal of the case, but the higher court also denied him review.

Superior Court Judge John Wulle set a review hearing March 7 to address the evidence issues.

Norris’ home was raided by federal agents in August 2006 as part of a nationwide Internet child pornography sting. Agents seized his computer hard drive and video tapes and reportedly found thousands of images of child pornography. The name of his church has not been released.

Laura McVicker: 360-735-4516 or laura.mcvicker@columbian.com.

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