TACOMA, Wash. — More than 2,700 pages of diaries kept by Steven Powell over several years — most of it filled with his bizarre and compulsive obsession over his daughter in-law Susan Cox Powell — were released Wednesday.
The documents were released by the Pierce County Sheriff's Office in Washington state. The department spent most of the day uploading the massive stack of documents to distribute to the media.
Powell, 62, was convicted May 16 of 14 counts of voyeurism. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison after a judge dismissed two of those counts. Powell is expected to be released from custody on May 23, 2013.
Powell also faces a civil lawsuit filed by the two young girls, then ages 8 and 10, whom he videotaped from his house through a window, looking into their bathroom. The girls' mother is also a plaintiff in the civil suit.
The News Tribune in Tacoma, which first obtained the diaries, said Powell first wrote about Susan Powell in January 2003, when he acknowledges his “greatest problem” and “greatest pleasure” is falling in love with her.
“The fact is, I can hardly control myself when it comes to her,” he wrote in loopy cursive.
During pre-trial motions before Powell was convicted, attorneys for the girls tried to have portions of his diaries admitted as evidence.
"The vast majority of the writing is sexually graphic and obsessing over Susan Powell," deputy Pierce County attorney Bryce Nelson said in May.
In trying to get the judge to admit the diary as evidence during the trial, prosecutors read passages from the diaries during pre-trial motions, such as "Susan likes to be admired and I'm a voyeur," "I'm a voyeur and Susan is an exhibitionist," and "I've been going nuts and nearly out of control sexually my entire life."
Prosecutors wanted to show the jury how deep Steven Powell's voyeuristic habits ran and how obsessed he was with pornography.
Eventually, the judge ruled that any passage related to Susan Powell could not be admitted during the trial. The only passage that the judge allowed was one in which Steven Powell wrote about how he "likes taking video shots of pretty girls in shorts and skirts, beautiful women of every age."
Powell is the father of Josh Powell, who murdered his two sons and killed himself in a fiery explosion in February.
