FRANKFORT - An eighth grade boy and his seventh grade girlfriend engaged in voluntary sex at her house in Kentucky. After it was discovered, the boy was arrested and prosecuted. The girl walked free.
State Assistant Attorney General Gregory Fuchs said the boy initiated acts that were “within the parameters of the crime.” The boy pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for having sex with his girlfriend, as well as exchanging nude photos with her. He will be required to register as a sex offender.
The attorney for the boy, John Wampler, argued that voluntary sex between children should not be prosecuted as criminal. The boy was apparently too young to consent to sex, with the minimum age of consent in Kentucky set at 16, but he was prosecuted anyway.
Dane County - A Dane County sheriff’s deputy miraculously escaped charges of child pornography, despite being caught with child pornography, because of a cut and paste error on a warrant.
In a tragic example of the broken “justice” system, former Dane County sheriff’s deputy Jeffrey C. Hilgers, 43, had seven counts of possession of child pornography dismissed Wednesday. The judge ruled that there was a fatal cut-and-paste error on a search warrant, thereby making the discovery of the illegal images on the deputy’s computers, inadmissible.
According to the report, investigators inadvertently used a paragraph, which stated they were searching for child pornography, instead of one specifying the search was for evidence in an illicit relationship between Hilgers and a woman serving a jail sentence at home on electronic monitoring.
The error was insurmountable, Dane County Circuit Judge John Markson said, so he had to suppress the search warrant along with a subsequent search warrant that was issued after child pornography was initially discovered, which led to the discovery of even more child pornography.
One of the key players in the creation and implementation of cybersecurity protocols for President Barack Obama's "signature legislation," the Affordable Care Act of 2010, will be spending the next two-and-a-half decades in a federal prison cell after a conviction for trafficking in Internet child pornography. Timothy DeFoggi, who served as the acting director of cybersecurity at Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the disgraced Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, was told by a judge on Monday that he'll serve the next 25 years in federal prison for kiddie pornography dissemination. DeFoggi was convicted by a federal jury on Aug. 26, 2014, after only a four-day trial in Omaha, Nebraska.
According to Justice Department officials, the 56-year-old computer security expert communicated online with other offenders in an underground Internet forum. At trial, it was shown that he articulated his strong desire to rape and murder children. Being a cyberscience expert, DeFoggi knew how to use the Tor browser, an online service that is capable of eluding law enforcement from tracking his Internet activities while he worked at HHS as its head of cybersecurity in 2013. What surprise many was the fact, he remained listed on the HHS staff roster with top security clearance even after he was arrested.
DeFoggi exchanged graphic sexual images of children on the website, which was impervious to traditional search engines or Web browsers, according to the Department of Justice. The FBI special agents assigned to the case subsequently were successful in closing down the kiddie porn site in December 2012.
“Using the same technological expertise he employed as Acting Director of Cyber Security at HHS, DeFoggi attempted to sexually exploit children and traffic in child pornography through an anonymous computer network of child predators,” said Assistant Attorney General Leslie Caldwell. “But dangerous criminals cannot be allowed to operate online with impunity. Today’s sentence shows that the Department of Justice will bring criminals and child predators to justice, even when they employ anonymous networks like Tor.”
Frank Lindsay, 62, is a father, small-business owner and avid surfer. He’s also one of 105,000 people in California — and 760,000 nationally — listed as a sex offender. In accordance with federal law, his name, photograph and home address appear in a public, online offender registry. In 1979, Lindsay, then 27, was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under the age of 14.
“I thought I could do whatever I wanted,” Lindsay says. “Add on some alcohol, and I was a real asshole.”
Today, Lindsay considers himself a reformed man. He says he hasn’t had a drink in 30 years, is a Taoist and advocate for restorative justice — encouraging violent people to make amends for their actions. But, he says, “It seems that I can never be forgiven.”
Few groups are as widely despised as sex offenders. Activities prosecuted as sex offenses vary by state, but can include public urination, consensual sex between teenagers, streaking, prostitution, downloading child pornography and rape. In some states, law-enforcement officials distribute flyers to notify neighbors of registrants’ convictions. Some registrants are prohibited from using the Internet. In 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that indefinite detention at psychiatric hospitals — or “civil commitment” — of sex offenders is constitutional.
The first law requiring sex offenders to register publicly and for life was passed in California in 1947 and targeted gay men, according to Andrew Extein, executive director of the Center for Sexual Justice. But many of today’s laws have their origins in the late 1970s, when feminists and social conservatives worked together to publicize high-profile “stranger danger” attacks on children, says Roger Lancaster, anthropology professor at George Mason University and author of “Sex Panic and the Punitive State.”
Beginning in the mid-1990s, several laws went into effect that changed how sex-offense cases were prosecuted. In 1994, states were required to create databases of sex offenders. Two years later, Megan’s Law, named for a 7-year-old in New Jersey who was brutally raped and murdered by a neighbor with two previous sex convictions, allowed states to make those registries public. States passed their own versions of the law; in some cases, they required that neighbors be notified of paroled offenders’ previous convictions. Later laws moved those sex-offender databases online, created a national registry, required lifetime registration of people 14 years old and up and imposed harsh mandatory minimum sentences for crimes involving children.
But almost 20 years after the passage of Megan’s Law, criminologists and judges, along with a burgeoning movement of sex-offender registrants and their families, are challenging not only the constitutionality of the laws but their effectiveness in reducing sexual assault. In January, a California court ruled in favor of a paroled sex offender who had argued that city and county “child-safety zone” ordinances prohibiting people in the registry from using parks, beaches and similar recreation areas were an unconstitutional form of banishment. In April, the state Supreme Court upheld the ruling by declining to review it.
A former Dane County sheriff’s deputy who allegedly began a sexual relationship with a woman while she was in a jail diversion program was charged Thursday with second-degree sexual assault.
Jeffrey C. Hilgers, 42, of Madison, who resigned in August 2013 from the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, was also charged with seven counts of possessing child pornography, which was allegedly discovered on his computer as investigators searched it for evidence related to his alleged relationship with the former inmate.
According to a criminal complaint filed Thursday, Hilgers began a relationship in April 2013 with a 42-year-old woman who was in the Pathfinders Jail Diversion Program .
According to the complaint, at the time that Hilgers and the woman first met, she was an inmate in the Dane County Jail and he was assigned to the housing units where she was incarcerated. But the relationship didn’t begin until later, when the woman was at home on the diversion program.
State law forbids sexual contact between correctional officers and inmates because of the supervisory role the officers have over the inmates. In recent years, several guards have been convicted of having sexual relationships with inmates at state prisons.
Guards or correctional staff who have sex with inmates can be charged with second-degree sexual assault.
Hilgers appeared in court Thursday and was released on a signature bond. His lawyer, Brian Hough, declined to comment .
According to the complaint:
The woman told Pathfinders program manager Fran Augustine in May 2013 that she was in a relationship with a sheriff’s deputy who knew she was in Pathfinders.
The woman met with investigators and said that there was nothing going on between her and Hilgers while she was in the jail, where she said she hardly talked to him. But they ran into each other in April 2013 at Capitol Centre Foods and began talking, then exchanged phone numbers and email addresses. They met for coffee that day.
During the interview with investigators, the woman also said, “I just am so afraid that he’s going to get in trouble here and it’s really unwarranted.”
In the weeks that followed, their relationship included sex, she said, but she said she never felt as though he used his position as a sheriff’s deputy to pressure her into sex.
Hilgers told another sheriff’s deputy about the relationship on May 30, 2013, and said that nothing had happened while the woman was in the jail. Hilgers told Deputy Gerald King that the woman was supposed to get off the jail diversion program around April 30, 2013, but her release date was extended.
King told investigators that Hilgers didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation until King told him that the woman was still an inmate.
Hilgers told investigators that when he learned that the woman’s release date had been extended, he decided he couldn’t wait any longer and began to see her.
As part of the investigation, investigators got a search warrant and seized two computers from his house, looking for evidence of communication between Hilgers and the woman. A search of the computers turned up eight images considered to be child pornography.
Hilgers is alleged to have possessed the child pornography in July 2011, prior to an April 2012 change in state law that made child porn possession punishable by a mandatory minimum three years in prison.
For crimes before the change in law, there was a mandatory minimum three-year prison sentence, but the old law allowed judges to impose a lesser sentence or place offenders on probation if they believe the sentence is “in the best interests of the community and the public will not be harmed.”
Sexting among youth is more prevalent than previously thought, according to a new study from Drexel University that was based on a survey of undergraduate students at a large northeastern university. More than 50 percent of those surveyed reported that they had exchanged sexually explicit text messages, with or without photographic images, as minors.
The study also found that the majority of young people are not aware of the legal ramifications of underage sexting. In fact, most respondents were unaware that many jurisdictions consider sexting among minors – particularly when it involves harassment or other aggravating factors – to be child pornography, a prosecutable offense. Convictions of these offenses carry steep punishments, including jail time and sex offender registration.
“This is a scary and disturbing combination,” said researcher David DeMatteo, JD, PhD. “Given the harsh legal penalties sometimes associated with youth sexting and the apparent frequency with which youth are engaging in it, the lack of comprehension regarding such penalties poses a significant problem.”
The study, entitled “Youth Sexting: Prevalence Rates, Driving Motivations, and the Deterrent Effect of Legal Consequences,” was published online in June 2014 by the journal entitled Sexuality Research and Social Policy. The full article is available here.
In addition to DeMatteo, an associate professor of psychology and law and director of Drexel’s joint JD/PhD program in psychology and law in the College of Arts and Sciences and School of Law, the study was conducted by lead author Heidi Strohmaier, a PhD candidate in psychology, and Megan Murphy, a JD/PhD candidate. For a Q+A with the researchers, click here.
The study, in which undergraduate students from a large northeastern university completed an anonymous online survey concerning their engagement in sexting as minors, revealed a significant relationship between awareness of legal consequences and sexting behavior as minors.
Those who were aware of the potential legal consequences reported sexting as a minor significantly less than those who were not aware of the legal consequences. Additionally, most respondents who reported being unaware of the potential legal consequences of sexting expressed the belief that they may have been deterred from sexting as a minor if they had known.
The finding that legal consequences may deter youth from sexting has important policy implications, according to the researchers.
In many jurisdictions, the law has yet to catch up with youth sexting behavior and technological advances. Until recently, most states did not have a legal mechanism in place to handle cases of teenage sexting. Instead, they were required to fit this new teenage subculture into the existing legal framework. As a result, youth sexting was often subsumed under laws governing serious child pornography and child exploitation offenses. Convictions of these offenses carry steep punishments, including jail time and sex offender registration—punishments that many lawyers and legislatures have deemed too harsh for adolescent sexting.
They are looking for people to interview for this documentary, so if you are interested, take the survey (link above) and contact them if needed.
Matt, Neil, Josh and Zach sought out pornography on the Internet as adolescents. Today they are convicted felons on the National Sex Offender Registry. Their names, photos and addresses are public information available on the Internet. Their residency, movement and employment options are extremely limited.
Law enforcement officials say child pornography possession constitutes the fastest growing prosecuted crime in the US. END OF LOVE is a feature-length documentary about the epidemic of males who are being convicted of downloading child pornography - how it happens and what it says about who we are.
END OF LOVE questions why and how the impulse to seek out child pornography originates in boys and men. Is their on-line sexual exploration and arousal responding to the normalization of sexualized images of underage girls in popular culture? Taking into consideration new discoveries in brain development and addictive behavior, does uncontrolled access to the cornucopia of sexual acts on the Internet at an early age pre-dispose youth to become eventual consumers of child pornography? Or not?
A 16-year-old Virginia girl is facing child pornography charges, after police say she posted photos of herself naked on Twitter.
Authorities received an anonymous tip describing the photos, which were posted to Twitter around Jan. 30. The girl, a student in James City County, admitted to posting "multiple" lewd photos of herself to the social networking website last week, according to police.
"One of our school resource officers made contact with her and her mother," Stephanie Williams-Ortery, a spokeswoman for the James City County Police Department told The Huffington Post.
"The young lady acknowledged that she had posted the pictures of herself [and] the mother acknowledged that the photos were of her daughter," Williams-Ortery said.
According to police, the girl, who has not been named, also admitted to sending photos directly to male acquaintances she was hoping to impress. She has been charged as a juvenile with felony "possession, reproduction, distribution, solicitation and facilitation of child pornography," Williams-Ortery said.
Not everyone in the community agrees with how police are handling the case.
"I don't think she should be charged with child pornography, because she is a child herself," parent Emily Altman told WAVY.com.
"That is distributing child pornography?" said parent Dometre Mobley. "She is a child."
However, because the girl is charged as a juvenile Virginia law would not require her to register as a sex offender, if she is found guilty, so long as she fulfills her obligations to the court.
Video Description (Excerpt): Senator Lamar Alexander's Former Chief of Staff has been found dead after committing suicide while awaiting court proceedings on child pornography charges.
For peoples own privacy, any time you take a photo, you should remove all the hidden metadata. A couple utilities that do this are Batch Purifier and JPEG & PNG Stripper.
02/04/2014
By Bonnie Baron
Federal judge rules that photo data from sex offender's iPhone was lawfully seized.
The FBI lawfully seized hidden iPhone photo data to locate a man accused of uploading child pornography, a federal judge ruled.
The U.S. government charged (PDF) _____ with sexual exploitation of children and distribution and possession of child pornography in August 2013. Because of _____'s status as a registered sex offender, he also faces penalties for committing a felony offense involving a minor.
In a six-page complaint made public upon _____'s arrest, Special Agent Richard Rennison described the investigation that led the FBI to the sex offender's door.
Rennsion said a sexually explicit photo taken with an iPhone 4 and posted on a website "primarily dedicated to the advertisement and distribution of child pornography and the discussion of matters pertinent to incest and pedophilia."
In the explicit photo, its young subject is sleeping on a leather couch.
According to Rennison's affidavit, the FBI investigators were able to glean embedded information, or metadata, from the image, including the make of the photographic device and the GPS coordinates where the photo was taken.
Law-enforcement officials first stopped at the home of _____'s neighbors who, as it turned out, did not have a similar leather couch or an iPhone 4, the affidavit states.
Realizing that the GPS coordinates could be off, Rennison said investigators took a closer look at other residents in the area. That their search turned up _____'s conviction for aggravated sexual assault of a child.
_____ ultimately let Rennison and a fellow task force officer enter his house where they found a similar couch, the affidavit states. _____ later admitted to taking the picture, and several others, of a 4-year-old girl in his home.
The sex offender argued (PDF) in court that the FBI violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures when it obtained the hidden data.
U.S. District Judge Gregg Costa nevertheless declined (PDF) last week to suppress the evidence.
"_____'s attempt to carve out the metadata from his public release of the image finds no support in the text of the Fourth Amendment or the case law applying it," the 10-page order states
Judge Costa found that _____ "gave up his right to privacy in that image once he uploaded it to the Internet, and that thing he publicly disclosed contained the GPS coordinates that led agents to his home."
"There is no basis for divvying up the image _____ uploaded into portions that are now public and portions in which he retains a privacy interest," Costa concluded.
The Bossier Parish Sheriff's Office held a press conference Wednesday morning to address the issue of children sending and receiving nude photos and videos. Bossier Sheriff, Julian C. Whittington, says his office has been receiving a high number of complaints in recent days of young people sharing nude photos via cell phones, computers and social media sites.
BPSO hinted that they are working a number of cases which could result in charges.
"You could be arrested, you could go to jail, you could have to register as a sex offender for the rest of your life. This is not child's play anymore, this is serious business," remarked Whittington. Sexting is a crime punishable by fine, jail time and community service for a first offense. Distributing pornography involving juveniles is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
BPSO will be working with the District Attorney's Office, the Bossier Parish School Board and city law enforcement agencies in an effort to address the issue. Families with children in Bossier schools will be receiving letters that give suggestions about how to open a dialogue with their children. You can read the letter issued by BPSO here.
The Missouri Legislature overwhelmingly passed legislation last year that would remove many juvenile offenders from the public sex offender registry, which is posted on the Internet. It would not have lessened the punishment for any offender. Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed the legislation and then launched a misleading campaign in which he highlighted some of the worst offenders on the registry.
Let me tell you my son Zach’s story, as it gives a very different perspective. It shows how harmful the sex offender registry can be for juveniles who should not even be classified as sex offenders, much less be on a public registry for the world to see.
Zach was a typical boy. He loved playing baseball and even made the all-star team with the American Legion. He loved hunting with his dad, being with his friends, playing video games and so often making us laugh. He was a kind-hearted, life-loving spirit.
At age 14, Zach was coming into his sexuality. Like many of his friends, he searched the Internet for girls his own age. But girls his age in sexually explicit pictures are classified as child pornography. When he downloaded them, he had no idea he was breaking the law. He believed that if something was readily available on the Internet, it must be OK.
Through the years he randomly viewed his downloaded library. One of the videos Zach downloaded was tagged by a federal agency that tracks child pornography. A few months after Zach turned 18, in 2008, St. Charles County deputy sheriffs were at our door to confiscate his computer. He was later called to the sheriff’s office for an interview. He went willingly and without a lawyer, thinking he had done nothing wrong.
At 6:30 on the morning of Jan. 7, 2010, our nightmare began. Federal agents knocked on our door with an arrest warrant for Zach. My husband and I hired a lawyer, who informed us Zach was facing four to 10 years in prison. We were in complete shock. On July 1, 2010, Zach was sentenced to 40 years of supervised release and a lifetime on the sex offender registry.
Zach was also ordered to take sex therapy. The therapy was more harmful than helpful. Part of his treatment was being forced to say he received sexual gratification from watching children have sex, which he did not. If he refused, he was threatened with being kicked out of class. That would have landed him in prison.
Zach became depressed and felt hopeless. He was prescribed anti-anxiety pills by his doctor. The doctor told me he believed Zach’s anxiety was caused by the treatment he was getting from his mandated sex therapy classes.
Zach would often sit in his room, a prison of its own. He felt like a freak, an outcast and completely powerless. I can only imagine what it is like knowing all your friends are at the first wedding ever in their circle of friends, dancing and celebrating at an occasion you should be part of but are not allowed.
Those on the sex offender registry cannot go anywhere where children might be present. Not to a friend’s wedding. Not to their grandmother’s funeral. Not to a baseball game. Not even to McDonald’s for a hamburger.
Zach was working for our family’s roofing company but was told he couldn’t work on a roof that housed children or had play equipment in the yard. He attempted to find employment elsewhere because children are in almost every home on which we work. But no one wanted to hire a registered sex offender.
Zach tried to look happy and calm for me, but I saw the fear and panic in his eyes. It was a hopeless situation for a 20-year-old boy who made a mistake when he was just a child. On Nov. 4, 2010, I lost my son. The autopsy report deemed his death an accidental overdose. Those of us who knew him well thought he just wanted to escape his pain.
The laws are terribly flawed. Those in Zach’s situation are dealt a “one size fits all” punishment. The laws need to be changed. What happened to Zach and our family should never have to happen to others.
MARTINEZ - A San Francisco police officer pleaded not guilty Monday morning in Contra Costa Superior Court to 10 felony counts of child molestation and possession of child pornography.
Officer Richard Hastings, 38, of Concord, is accused of molesting a 15-year-old boy on several different occasions between June and August.
Deputy District Attorney Alison Chandler said Hastings was arrested in August after the boy was caught sneaking out of his own home to meet with the officer.
Defense attorney Eileen Burke said the pair had met on an online dating site and the boy had claimed he was of legal age.
Burke argued for Hastings' $910,000 bail to be lowered because he "is no more danger than anyone who signs up for an online dating service."
Chandler, however, said the boy was clearly underage and was stopped by police that night in August on suspicion of a curfew violation.
When police contacted Hastings, he allegedly said, "Don't worry, I'm a police officer," Chandler said.
"He was using his police status to get out of the trouble he was about to be in," she said.
Chandler said prosecutors did not immediately charge him after his Aug. 21 arrest because further investigation was needed, including into the contents of his electronic devices.
She said the FBI reviewed those contents and found child pornography involving an 8-year-old boy.
Chandler said Hastings told investigators that after he was involved in a police shooting a few years ago, he began "doing riskier things."
"He is reckless, he is cavalier," she told Judge Bruce Mills.
Burke, the defense attorney, told Mills that her client "has been completely cooperative" and has not had any problems since his August arrest.
The judge decided to reduce Hastings' bail to $100,000 and ordered him to return to court on March 7 to set a date for a preliminary hearing.
Hastings, a 13-year veteran of the San Francisco Police Department, was suspended without pay after his arrest.
Hastings is named in a federal civil rights lawsuit stemming from the 2011 death of Kenneth Harding, who police say accidentally shot himself during a shootout with Hastings and another officer after police tried to stop Harding for alleged fare evasion in San Francisco's Bayview District.
At the time of the shooting, Harding was on parole in Washington after serving time for pimping a 14-year-old girl.
Advocates for Harding have questioned the Police Department's version of events leading to his death, as well as whether it was necessary to use force against him.
Tracey Bell-Borden, a friend of Harding's mother, attended this morning's hearing and criticized Hastings.
"This is someone who was supposed to serve and protect," Bell-Borden said. "This man, something is wrong with him."
The Supreme Court is weighing how much defendants convicted of possessing images of child pornography should have to pay in restitution to the victims depicted in those images. The case involves a woman known as “Amy,” whose uncle raped her when she was a young girl and circulated photographs of the abuse online. He eventually went to jail, but those photos became among the most widely viewed child porn in the world. Karen Duffin reports on Amy’s quest for restitution.
Ryan Loskarn had been arrested in December on charges of possessing, distributing child pornography.
WASHINGTON - A former chief of staff to Sen. Lamar Alexander charged last month with possessing and distributing child pornography, was found dead in his parents' Maryland home, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Ryan Loskarn was found hanging at about noon Thursday, and the Maryland state Medical Examiner said Friday that Loskarn's death, initially reported by Politico, had been ruled a suicide.
"Carroll County Sheriff's deputies responded to a private residence ... for a report of an unconscious male, believed to be deceased," the sheriff's office reported Friday morning. "Family members reported finding 35-year old Jesse Ryan Loskarn unresponsive in his basement where he'd been residing with family since this past December."
Federal agents arrested Loskarn last month on charges that he possessed and intended to distribute child pornography. The arrest came as agents executed a raid on his southeast Washington residence.
Loskarn was accused of placing an external computer hard drive, later found to contain explicit videos, outside his second-floor window. Alexander, R-Tenn., fired him the same day.
The former aide had worked for Tennessee Republicans for more than a decade in several roles and became the senator's chief of staff in late 2011. He earned about $169,000 for fiscal 2013, according to records compiled by LegiStorm.
Loskarn made a rapid rise through the staff ranks in Congress, and the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call called him "one of the Senate GOP's top strategists and aides." The newspaper also had included him on its list of "Fabulous 50 Movers and Shakers."
He was born near Baltimore and graduated with honors in 2000 from Tulane University. That same year, he started in the office of Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif., before joining the House Rules Committee in 2001.
In 2003 he became communications director for Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a position he held until 2007.
His next move was to become communications director for the Senate Republican Conference, then headed by Alexander. The conference was charged with promoting GOP policy ideas and legislation.
Alexander stepped down as chairman of the conference in late 2011 and named Loskarn as his chief of staff in his personal office.
"For everyone involved, this is a sad and tragic story from beginning to end," Alexander said Friday in statement.
Prosecutors had delayed an indictment of Loskarn, hinting at a possible plea agreement. He had been released to the custody of his parents in Sykesville, Md., about 40 miles north of Washington, where he was ordered not to use the Internet and to wear an ankle bracelet.
In an unusual ruling issued in the case late last year, U.S. Magistrate John M. Facciola defended his decision to release Loskarn to his parents, citing measures taken to ensure that he would not have access to the Internet.
Officials believe that between November 2010 and March 2011, Loskarn made several purchases from a website offering child pornography DVDs. Loskarn also was accused of offering child pornography files for download from his home computer.
"I have prohibited the defendant's use of the Internet," he wrote in the two-page ruling. "I concluded, therefore, that the risk of his resuming the downloading of child pornography is not great."
The memorandum did not mention the risk of suicide. Previously, authorities had worried that Loskarn was a flight risk.
He faced a potential maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment on the charge of possessing child porn. The distribution charge carries a potential sentence of up to 20 years.
A status conference in the case had been scheduled for Monday in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
By RICHARD LIEBSON, ERIK SHILLING, SHAWN COHEN and LEE HIGGINS
Mount Pleasant Police Chief Brian Fanelli, accused Thursday of possessing child pornography, told federal investigators his alleged habit began when he was researching material for school classes he was teaching about the dangers of sexual abuse, according to papers filed in U.S. District Court in White Plains.
“But shortly thereafter (Fanelli) began viewing child pornography for personal interest,” the 10-page complaint says.
Fanelli was freed on $50,000 bond after appearing in federal court on child-pornography charges late Thursday, hours after federal agents raided his Mahopac home and seized computers alleged to contain more than 120 files of children as young as 7 engaging in sex acts.
The complaint describes graphic, sometimes incestuous sexual activities so disturbing that The Journal News has chosen not to post the documents on lohud.com. Fanelli is accused of downloading the files to his computer and sharing them with others, including undercover federal agents.
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called the case “disturbing and sad,” saying the police chief is accused of breaking a law “designed to protect the youngest and most vulnerable of our population from vile exploitation.”
Fanelli, whose wife was in the courtroom, did not enter a plea to a charge of possession of child pornography. The crime is alleged to have occurred between October and January, during which time he was elevated to chief.
A longtime digital whiz at the department, Fanelli, who has two grown children, was well-liked among other officers and heavily involved with the community. He taught fifth-graders at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish school in Shrub Oak, where he spoke to hundreds of students yearly about the dangers of sexual abuse, according to a letter posted on the parish’s website.
Shortly after 4 p.m., he was led into the courtroom by U.S. marshals. Pouring himself a glass of water, he accidentally spilled some on the defense table and laughed with his lawyer, federal defender Susanne Brody, as she brought him towels to clean it up.
Fanelli told U.S. Magistrate Lisa Margaret Smith that he takes Lipitor and another prescription medication but that they did not affect his ability to understand the proceedings.
“I am quite clear,” he told the judge.
Before adjourning the case until Feb. 19, Smith told the chief that he could not use computers or cellphones and could not be in the presence of minors without supervision. He is to be monitored electronically and can leave his home only for medical appointments, visits to his lawyer, church services and for work.
If convicted, Fanelli faces up to 10 years in prison and fines of up to $250,000.
Town Supervisor Joan Maybury called the news “very disturbing” and said Fanelli has been suspended with pay in accordance with his contract. She said she most likely will appoint one of the department’s two lieutenants as acting chief.
U.S. Homeland Security agents notified Maybury of Fanelli’s arrest about 12:15 p.m., telling her that he would be charged with trafficking in child pornography, she said. Maybury said agents turned Fanelli’s gun and badge over to Mount Pleasant police and that a federal technician was inspecting the computer in his office.
No one was home Thursday afternoon at Fanelli’s raised ranch on Archer Road in Mahopac Falls, a quiet neighborhood of single-family homes near the Westchester border.
About 8:30 a.m. Thursday, neighbors saw a group of cars and vans pull up in front of Fanelli’s house. At least two agents wore helmets and SWAT gear, though Fanelli was arrested without incident, neighbors said.
Sgt. Eric Anttila of Mount Pleasant police had no comment; other officers said they were shocked by the news.
“I’m still trying to get information myself,” Lt. Robert Miliambro said.
The arrest was disturbing to town residents, though several said they weren’t surprised a police chief had been implicated.
“You hear so many things today — look at how many officials are caught with their hand in the cookie jar,” said John Mangeri, who has lived in Mount Pleasant for 15 years.
Dennis Adisson, 50, a White Plains resident who works in a school in Mount Pleasant, said that as a police chief, Fanelli should know better.
“It’s sad, it’s embarrassing, it’s sickening,” he said. “It’s all of those things wrapped in one.”
Fanelli, 54, a native of Valhalla, was hired by the town in November 1981. He rose to the rank of lieutenant before being appointed chief in November, just the sixth police chief in the town’s history. Fanelli receives an annual salary of $135,518.
A member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for decades, the church website says Fanelli spoke to around 1,000 parish schoolchildren in 2012 and again in October, warning younger children to stay safe from sexual abuse and older students to beware of “the pitfalls of social media devices, games and computer applications.”
“He has overseen numerous criminal investigations involving sexual abuse,” according to a letter on the website written by Sara Koshofer, the parish’s religious education coordinator.
Fanelli has been best known most recently for his involvement in the fatal shooting of Pace University student Danroy Henry Jr. In January 2013, a lawyer for Henry’s family accused Fanelli and former Mount Pleasant police Chief Louis Alagno of covering up crucial details of the incident.
Fanelli denied any coverup, and the Henry family’s lawsuit is ongoing in the same courthouse where Fanelli was arraigned Thursday.
“Justice for DJ,” a pro-DJ Henry Facebook page, was quick to comment on Fanelli’s arrest. “Same person that lied to us the night DJ was killed, the same person that changed Ronald Beckley’s statements, the same person that promised he would get to the truth! I hope he likes his jumpsuit! The walls are crumbling!” said a post Thursday.
Fanelli, a 1977 graduate of Valhalla High School, led the department’s successful bid for state accreditation in 1998. He was instrumental in computerizing the department’s records and in 1999 introduced an email alert system to disseminate crime and emergency information to residents.
Staff writers Jorge Fitz-Gibbon, Jonathan Bandler, Terence Corcoran and Hoa Nguyen contributed to this report.
A South Florida nudist, arrested on charges that he helped take pornographic photographs of his three young daughters and shared them with other men, is putting on an unusual defense.
_____, 53, who was living at a nudist colony in Palm Beach County, is arguing that there is nothing pornographic about the pictures and that they are regular family portraits of a naturist family.
Federal prosecutors say they believe several of the photographs are clearly inappropriate and the final judgment call should lie with a trial jury. A grand jury has already voted there was enough evidence to indict _____ on one count of producing child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bill Matthewman agreed with the U.S. Attorney's Office after reviewing the photographs during a hearing Wednesday in federal court in West Palm Beach.
"Several of these photos the court has reviewed are lascivious. … They are, in the court's opinion, sexually explicit," Matthewman said.
The judge ordered _____ detained without bond pending his trial — on the grounds that he is a serious flight risk and poses "a clear risk of danger to the community, and specifically to his daughters."
Federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations began scrutinizing _____ earlier this year when they found inappropriate photographs of his daughters on a computer that belonged to _____, 44, a neighbor of _____ in the private, gated Sunsport Gardens Family Naturist Resort in Loxahatchee Groves in western Palm Beach County. The girls were between ages 8 and 12 when the photographs were taken, prosecutors said.
TYLER (AP) - An East Texas parole officer has been sentenced to more than three years in federal prison for using his state-owned computer to view child pornography.
Prosecutors in Tyler say 45-year-old Barry Porter Griffith of Flint pleaded guilty Wednesday to possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to 42 months in prison.
Texas Department of Criminal Justice network engineers in October 2012 detected significant bandwidth being used to view pornography. Officials traced the usage to Griffith’s computer and then remotely viewed websites that he was accessing from his office.
Griffith, when confronted by law officers, surrendered two personal computers that also contained child pornography images.
Texas’ highest criminal court Wednesday invalidated a state law that banned sexually explicit Internet communication between an adult and a minor, ruling the 2005 statute violates free speech protections.
A companion law criminalizing the sexual solicitation of minors was upheld by the state Court of Criminal Appeals.
Lawyers for the state had argued that without the ban on sexually explicit communication, “perverts will be free to bombard our children with salacious emails and text messages, and parents and law enforcement would be unable to stop it,” the unanimous ruling noted.
But the court said Texas children are protected by other laws that have passed constitutional scrutiny, including statutes banning solicitation, obscenity, harassment and the distribution of harmful materials to minors.
The now-invalidated state law prohibited adults from engaging in sexually explicit online communication with a minor with the intent of sexual gratification.
Laws limiting the First Amendment right to free speech based on the content of that speech — like the Texas statute on online sexually explicit communication — are presumed to be constitutionally invalid unless they serve a compelling state interest and are narrowly drawn to limit their impact, the appeals court said.
The opinion by Judge Cathy Cochran acknowledged that the state has a well-established interest in protecting children from child predators.
But the Texas law was not narrowly written, she wrote, instead covering “a whole cornucopia of ‘titillating talk’ or ‘dirty talk,’” including sexually explicit literature such as “Lolita,” “50 Shades of Grey,” “Lady Chatterly’s Lover” and Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida.”
Cochran listed other “sexually explicit television shows, movies, and performances” improperly covered by the law, including Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction during the 2004 Super Bowl and Miley Cyrus’s “twerking” during the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards.
“In sum, everything (the law) prohibits and punishes is speech and is either already prohibited by other statutes — such as obscenity, distributing harmful material to minors, solicitation of a minor, or child pornography — or is constitutionally protected,” Cochran wrote.
In its ruling, the court dismissed a pending indictment against _____ of Harris County, whose trial had been delayed while he challenged the law’s constitutionality. _____ had been charged with communicating in a sexually explicit manner with somebody he believed was a minor, a third-degree felony.
A pensioner is warning other computer users to be vigilant after he was targeted by scammers trying to extort money.
Jack Clark, 74, of Fatfield, Washington, was shocked to see a message purporting to be from the police after his computer locked him out while he was researching his family history.
The message said his PC had been blocked after claiming it had been used to view child and animal pornography.
The ransomeware virus installed itself on his computer, and threatened that unless he handed over £100 to clean his PC, he could face a £250,000 fine or six years in jail.
Grandfather-of-two Mr Clark, married to Hilda, 73, said “I just couldn’t believe it.”
“I rang the police, and before I had finished explaining, the officer said ‘it’s a scam’. It was a good hour before my legs had stopped shaking.”
A police spokesman said: “We would always warn people of the dangers of anyone calling a number which pops up on their computer claiming there is a problem. Reporting anything suspicious to police is the right thing to do.”
“We always advise people never to give out any personal details – particularly bank details – out over the phone or online.”
“These are fraudsters who want to scam the owner out of cash or get access to personal details.”
He added that anyone with doubts about such calls or messages should contact the Office of Fair Trading.
