Post a Pic of Your Penis--That'll Be a Disbarment

Cesar Baca, a Colorado and Missouri attorney has been getting disbarred all over the place following his conviction on indecent exposure charges following his posting of several penis pics to a person he mistakenly assumed to be a 14 year old teenage girl.  Kansas is the latest state to yank his ticket. 

Hat Tip to Courthouse News Service for original article.

Another Big Law Bad Guy Caught In Child Porn Distribution and Possession

Late last week a capital markets lawyer and partner at Allen & Overy (which according to its website is a major international law firm practicing in 37 cities), Edward De Sear (pic) was arrested by the FBI and charged with distributing child pornography.

According to the Village Voice:  The complaint filed by the FBI includes graphic descriptions of three videos and images they had traced back to an IP address registered to De Sear. Two feature an adult male in sexual acts with a pre-pubescent boy, and another depicts an adult male with a pre-pubescent female who was bound by rope. 

During the execution of the search warrant, on or about July 14, 2011, law enforcement agents interviewed EDWARD DE SEAR, who admitted, in substance and in part, that

(1) he downloads and shares child pornography using his laptop;
(2) he uses the P2P network to download and share child pornography;
(3) he is the only person in his home who uses the P2P network; and
(4) he receives sexual gratification from viewing child pornography

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Last year, I passed along many examples of professionals of all sorts involved in this repulsive stuff.

On some psychological level I get how a person gets into the neurological habit of clicking on images and downloading this garbage.  But I can't fathom the act of making it, producing computer files comprised of this disturbing stuff, and distributing it.   You would think a lawyer would completely understand the perniciousness, let alone the danger in these criminal acts.  But as we saw last year, Judges, lawyers, child care workers, psychologists, physicians, bankers and law enforcement are not immune from committing these crimes.  

In addition, the FBI complaint states that:

Former Fed Law Clerk and Peeping Tom Off to Jail

Daniel Eisman, a lawyer and former law clerk to a federal judge was sentenced to 5 years in prison for voyeurism and child porn.  This striking account is from reporter Lisa Demer at the Anchorage Daily News which provided the account of Rachel Yould's fraud conviction and sentencing last year.  Here's Ms. Demer's account of Eismans's sentencing:

"Daniel Eisman, a former law clerk to a federal judge in Anchorage, was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison after pleading guilty to indecent viewing and child pornography charges. At the sentencing hearing before state Superior Court Judge Gregory Miller, one victim testified by phone and another attended in person, telling the judge about the pain and sense of betrayal inflicted by Eisman. The indecency charge relates to secret cameras he placed around his home and in a cabin.

In all, prosecutor Roman Kalytiak identified six victims by their initials. Victims told the judge at least a dozen people can be seen on the videos in various states of undress or even using the bathroom.  'The people in these videos are not strangers,' Kalytiak said. 'These are people who were friends of the defendant's.' Some were co-workers.

Eisman clerked for U.S. District Judge Timothy Burgess (a 2005 Bush appointee,) as did the victim who stumbled across the videos last May on a hard drive connected to his home computer. She had permission to use the computer and was apparently looking for winter carnival pictures from Fur Rondy, Kalytiak said.   She found Eisman's secret instead.
The co-worker was a frequent babysitter for Eisman and his wife. She attended the birth of their child. She spent holidays with Eisman, his wife and his parents. He was one of her best friends, she said in telephone testimony.  The woman was babysitting for Eisman's family on May 5, 2010, when she came across a file with her name on it.

'On that date, I learned that Dan had been videotaping me, recording me in the most vulnerable moments every chance he got,' she said.

Eisman, who is 36, admitted setting up cameras in his guest bathroom, guest bedroom and other rooms in his home and in a family cabin in an effort to secretly peep on men and women. The cameras were hidden in a lamp, picture frame and carbon monoxide detector, among other places.

The coworker said the videos showed her undressing in various rooms over an eight-month period. At least once, Eisman encouraged her to take a shower in the guest bathroom.

She said she suspected he had been making his secret videos of his friends' private moments for at least five years. He had amassed an enormous collection, she said. She said she was particularly concerned by the hundreds of downloaded child pornography images found on the computer. They were mixed with photos of his own baby boy so that he could look at his son, then child porn, one image after another.  'I fear that if left unchecked these boundaries may have become blurred in his real life as well,' she said. 'I am deeply concerned for the safety of his now 1-year-old boy.'

She turned the hard drive over to Anchorage police, who obtained a search warrant for it, Kalytiak said.  The coworker testified that she's been devastated since finding the videos last May, not only because of the loss of her own privacy, but because of the hurt everyone suffered, including Eisman's wife -- her friend.

'It's a horrible thing to have to turn your former best friend into the police,' she told the judge. But it was the right thing to do, she said.

A second victim also testified, a man who said he too was a co-worker and friend of Eisman.  'I want to speak for the untold victims who are not here, because they are pillars of our community and their reputation is so easily destroyed by something of this nature,' the second victim told the judge.

Eisman used many ruses to entice women into his home, the man told the judge. He hosted parties. He used his own child to lure baby sitters to his cameras. He arranged his videos by name and labeled some as 'good.'

None of the videos were ever posted on the Internet, his defense lawyer, Andrew Lambert, told the judge. The defense and prosecution worked out a plea deal that is severe, but fair, he said, urging the judge to accept it.   When it came to Eisman's turn, he admitted that 'what I did was simply wrong.'  He said he's already getting help from a psychologist.

'As for the victims, it's more than a bit ironic because we were truly friends before I betrayed their trust,"'Eisman said in court. 'No words will give you back what I took. You have every right to be angry, every right to want to lash out, every right to hate me[. . . ]  What I did didn't stem from malice. It stemmed from curiosity, addiction, and a failure of my moral compass. But ultimately the fault is my own.'

Eisman said he was grateful that his wife had supported him throughout the ordeal, though the marriage is now ending. Maybe his victims will take solace in what he's losing: 'A job, a career, my wife, my law license and my reputation.'  The worst of it will be the lost years with his son, he said, breaking into tears as he talked about the 'messy meal times, play times in the park and a dozen other firsts."'

In pronouncing the sentence, Judge Miller paraphrased a psychologist in town who says it takes 20 years to build up a reputation and 20 minutes to tear it down.

'And you have succeeded like no one I've ever seen before in doing that,' Miller told Eisman.

In addition to the prison time, Eisman must register for 15 years as a sex offender and will be on probation for five years.  Eisman walked out of the courtroom, his hands behind his back his shackles, to begin his prison sentence."
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Mr. Eisman worked for U.S. District Judge who was a former U.S. Attorney (Hon. Timothy M. Burgess)--of course, Eisman has no explanation for his acts. Those acts are inexplicable as are most bad acts by those of us who know better.

Simple Justice on Restitution and the "Misty" Series of Child Pornography

This morning Scott H. Greenfield at Simple Justice had a provocative post on the "Misty" series of computer child pornography. 

In the last year the New York Times and other major media  covered the legal and philosophical issues arising out of the now adult survivor victim's efforts to seek redress, specifically to obtain "restitution" in criminal prosecution where her images crop up on the computer hard drives of child porn defendants.

Scott's post this morning (his second on this case) deals with some of the aspects of the underlying criminal conduct as it relates to the restitution component;  and, especially the difficulty federal courts face in arriving at statutory restitution remedies.  Restitution is complicated, enough, now try to figure out how it suffices as a remedy for an adult survivor of child pornography vis-a-vis the present day perpetrator via the mouse click. 

Lots to think about, huh?

If I showed You the Evidence, I'd Be Guilty of Distributing Child Porn

The Rapid City Journal has this remarkable report relating to a prosecutor's refusal to turn over images to the defense counsel in a child porn case because as this post header says, the Prosecutor claims it would be an illegal distribution of child pornography.:

"Releasing evidence to a defendant's attorney would make her guilty of distributing child pornography, prosecutor Laura Roetzel said Wednesday.

Pennington County's chief deputy state's attorney has refused to hand over copies of photo evidence in the case against John Rolfe to his attorney.  Rolfe, 59, is accused of three counts of first-degree rape and 12 counts of the manufacture, distribution and possession of child pornography. He is being held in the Pennington County Jail on $1 million bond.

Both state and federal statutes prevent her from releasing the information, Roetzel said. 'I would be guilty of disseminating child pornography,' Roetzel said.

Rolfe's attorney is free to examine the evidence in the Pennington County State's Attorney's Office, which is a common practice in these cases, Roetzel said.

During Wednesday's hearing, Roetzel announced that she plans to ask the court to permanently suspend Rolfe's telephone privileges. Roetzel said later that Rolfe is making harassing telephone calls to people who are peripherally involved in the case.  Roetzel and Rolfe's attorney will present their arguments at a motions hearing at 9:15 a.m. on Nov. 1."
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Seems to me that an argument exists that the defendant has a de facto deprivation of due process claim.  For one thing, without knowing more about the specific facts of this case, we can point to at least one situation over the last year where a defendant, facing 20-years, was able to prove that the alleged "child" in alleged child pornography video was an adult.   One could conceive of the situation where absence some prolonged access to such material would deprive the defense counsel of the ability in a similar fashion to explore this defense.  Furthermore, there is the question of chain of custody, possession of the "evidence" might permit testing or other forms of examination to establish manipulation of the images, or a source or custody other than the defendant.

I know that I previously related the case involving my client, a 17-year old male high school special ed student and star athlete, who was sexually exploited by his female substitute teacher.  In fact my client fathered a child with this educator; although his lawsuit brought after his 21st birthday was tossed by the civil courts because of the restrictive OurState statute of limitations

Unfortunately, the parents of my client turned over numerous photographs on CD-ROM constituting evidence of the crimes against their son.  These were rank sex images of this teacher having sex with my client and other teenage boys.  In turn I provided these images to the prosecutor who convened a Grand Jury.  Who got indicted?  My clients.  Yes, my clients: the parents, (as an aside I should have realized that my career was swirling down the drain),--why?  The prosecutor accused my clients of possession of child pornography!  The charges were subsequently dismissed, but not before these poor folks were humiliated in the press, had to hire a criminal defense counsel and all the other horrors you might imagine. 

It sounds to me like the same sort of thinking (?) is going on here. 

Arizona Pediatrician Arrested for Child Porn Scandal--He Fled

AZCentral.com is reporting that the Sun City Pediatrician, Dr. Emilio Luna arrested last week on child porn charges has made the proverbial "run for the border."  Luna who was released on bond with electronic monitoring.  There was substantial evidence that Luna had a pre-planned escape (multiple fake passports, lots of cash, etc.), so it was pretty amazing that he was able to get bond.  Luna left his electronic monitoring bracelet in his car and ran. 

Dr. Luna, who is Hispanic, may have engaged in reverse immigration.  At the link is my earlier post on Luna's arrest.

Child Porn Claims Maine's Top Prosecutor

James Cameron (pic) was formerly the top prosecutor in Maine's Attorney General's Office, now he's a felon convicted of federal child pornography laws.  This account is courtesy of Trevor Maxwell at the  Portland Press-Herald:

"Three years ago, James M. Cameron held a position of power and trust as the top drug prosecutor for the Maine Attorney General's Office.

His stunning fall from that post began in December 2007, when state and federal agents showed up at his Hallowell home with search warrants for the four computers inside. The fall ended Monday, when a federal judge convicted Cameron on 13 of 15 counts of sending, receiving and possessing child pornography over the Internet.

Cameron, 48, showed no emotion as Judge John Woodcock Jr. read the verdicts that capped the six-day bench trial. The former assistant attorney general was immediately handcuffed and put in federal custody after the ruling. The former state prosecutor, who opted not to testify in his own defense, faces a minimum of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison when he is sentenced later this year. The Maine State Police Computer Crimes Unit began investigating Cameron in 2007, after Yahoo reported finding child pornography in the photos of an account holder later identified as Cameron's wife. The Yahoo reports were made to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., an organization that works with local, state and federal investigators.

Investigators ultimately tied 17 user profiles on Yahoo – many of which had sexually explicit names – to three Internet Protocol addresses assigned to computers at the Cameron household. Prosecutors used data from the computers, including log-in names and times, to determine that it was Cameron alone who was responsible for the illegal activity. Besides images of child pornography uploaded to Yahoo file servers, investigators found explicit images, e-mails, chats and other evidence on the four computers seized from Cameron's home. Cameron engaged in some of the illegal activity from his home computers on days when he was working, prosecutors said. His former secretary testified that Cameron was often away from his office, and those unexplained absences prompted a running joke at the Attorney General's Office, in which someone would ask: 'Where in the world is Jim Cameron?'

Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Clark referred to that joke several times during his closing argument Monday.  'Where in the world is Jim Cameron? We know the answer. He was at home, on his computer, trading child pornography,'  Clark said.  Clark said Cameron had advanced computer knowledge, and he stored pornographic materials in photo folders on Yahoo so that he could then delete the files from his home computers using a software program called 'Wash n' Go.'

But Cameron was apparently unaware that traces of the child pornography, including images and chats on the now-defunct service 'Google Hello,' remained on the hard drives of the computers and were found by investigators, Clark said.

In his closing argument, defense attorney Michael A. Cunniff said the government failed to prove that it was Cameron who sent, received or possessed any illegal photographs or videos. Cunniff said if Cameron inadvertently received illegal images, he deleted them because he was not looking for child pornography. Erotic chat and fantasies are not crimes and are protected by the right to free speech, Cunniff said.

'If a person wants to collect child pornography, they save it, they don't destroy it,' Cunniff said. He also said the investigation of Cameron was flawed from the start because agents believed him to be guilty and they did not pursue any other possibilities, such as the theory that someone pirated the open wireless signal at Cameron's home. Cunniff noted that one state police detective used the phrase 'stringing evidence around Jim Cameron's neck.'

'No meaningful search for exculpatory evidence was made,' Cunniff told Judge Woodcock.

Cameron was indicted by a federal grand jury in February 2009. He waived his right to a jury, putting his fate solely in the hands of Woodcock, the chief federal judge for the District of Maine.

The trial proceeded slowly as government lawyers and Cunniff argued over rules, procedural matters and the admissibility of almost every piece of evidence.  'The persistence and vigor that I displayed were manifestations of my respect for the law, not disrespect for the court,' Cunniff told Woodcock at the outset of his closing argument. Cunniff had lodged repeated objections based on his argument that Yahoo does not have the right to browse through images posted by users in password-protected folders. Woodcock said the images qualify as business records and Yahoo has the right to inspect them.

Cameron is now divorced from his wife, but they have been working together to raise their 15-year-old autistic son, Cunniff said. Cameron had been free on $75,000 bail before Monday's verdicts.

Woodcock found Cameron guilty on eight counts of sending, four counts of receiving and one count of possessing child pornography. The judge found Cameron not guilty on two counts of sending child pornography."
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I've been following this story for awhile, now, and I'm not quite sure I understand Cunniff's argument about "business records," nonetheless it is clear that Cunniff aggressively defended Cameron.  I am curious as to how an appeal is going to play out.  If I understand the story, the child porn was in an account belonging, at least in name, to the wife.  Obviously the Judge believed that the federal prosecutors proved that Cameron set up the Yahoo account in her name for his purposes. Still, you have to wonder if a reviewing appellate court will say this factor creates a basis for "reasonable doubt."

Once again, do you need an object lesson in the power of this awful stuff--child pornography?

"Far Beyond the Heartland of Depravity"

The terrific and beautifully written Blawg, Simple Justice, has an excellent consideration of the 11th Circuit's opinion in the US v. Irey a particularly disturbing child pornography case that I came across at the Orlando Sentinel last week but didn't have Scott Greenfield's presence of mind to address. 

Greenfield's Criminal Defense Blog is always insightful and his discussion of the Irey decision finely dissects problems with the many facets of the crime, the harm, the sentencing and the politics of pedophilia and child pornography and particularly the computer viewing consumers of Irey's vile images.

By way of background, William Irey (mug shot), a construction company owner is serving a 171/2 year sentence as a consequence of child pornography he created as a sex-tourist in Cambodia.  The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held en banc (meaning the entire court, all the Judges, heard and signed on to the opinion) that the sentence was "unreasonably" short for the crimes committed by Irey which the Court described as "far beyond the heartland of depravity."  The Orlando Sentinel's coverage is at the link.

Maryland State Trooper Facing Child Porn Charges

Crime reporter Peter Hermann of the Baltimore Sun reports that this guy (pic, left), Maryland State Trooper, Bruce Tucker is charged by prosecutors with possessing thousands of pornographic images of children:

"A Maryland State Trooper faces felony charges of possessing child pornography after more than 3,000 images were found on his computer, a Baltimore County Police spokesman said.  Investigators say Bruce Allen Tucker, 47, of Esplanade Court in Owings Mills, had received and exchanged images of child pornography, including male and female children performing sex acts, posing nude and performing oral sex. He was arrested July 16 and released after posting $50,000 bail.

State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo said Tucker has been suspended without pay.  According to the statement of charges, the investigation began in March. All the exchanges occurred while Tucker was off-duty, said Lt. Robert McCullough, a Baltimore County Police spokesman.

Here are more details from county police, who did not mention in a release that Tucker was a state trooper:

Baltimore County Police arrested Bruce Allen Tucker, 47, of Esplanade Court in Baltimore County. On July 16, he was arrested and charged with numerous child pornography charges to include possession of child pornography, possession of child pornography with the intent to distribute, and the distribution and possession of obscene matter.   Police investigation revealed that Tucker received and exchanged numerous images of child pornography over a period of several months. he images depicted pubescent male and female children nude performing sex acts, posing nude in a state of arousal, performing oral sex, and posing nude.

Tucker used the screen names Poledeepin@aol.com and LONGPOLEIN@aol.com. [charming]

Bruce Allen Tucker was released after posting bail in the amount of $50,000.
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If you get a strange email, beware, Trooper Tucker is on the loose. 

I now only feel obligated to send along the accounts of these child porn arrests if there is something particularly unusual in  the story.  The purpose of continuing to pass along these stories it to marshal the evidence for the proposition that the compulsion to look at child pronograpy, knows no boundary.

Be disgusted.

Kiddie Porn Arrest of LaCrosse Diocese (Wisconsin) Priest, And a Comment on The Vatican's New Sex Abuse Policy

The Bad Lawyer has marshaled over the last year lots of anecdotal evidence of the widespread "appeal" of kiddie porn in an effort to make the point that this crime is not limited to someones creepy hillbilly uncle Fred.  Here on Bad Lawyer we've seen the arrest ad prosecution of persons from all social classes and all occupations including lawyers, judges, law enforcement, social workers and physicians.

This story at TwinCities.com about Father Patrick A. Umberger a LaCrosse, Wisconisn priest is a slightly more disturbing report, and not because Umberger's a priest.  He is also the webmaster of the Diocese of LaCrosse, Wisconsin!  This is from Todd Richmond's account:

The Rev. Patrick A. Umberger, the Diocese of La Crosse's webmaster, faces one felony count punishable by up to $100,000 in fines and 25 years in prison. Among several images of children that state department of justice agents discovered on Umberger's computer were three photographs depicting boys and possibly a girl in sexual positions, according to the complaint.  Umberger, 59, has served as pastor at St. Patrick's Parish in Onalaska since 2005. He also teaches at the parish's school and serves as chaplain at Aquinas Middle School in La Crosse, according to his website.

The Diocese of La Crosse has stripped Umberger of his duties 'to protect all parties involved,' according to a Thursday statement from diocese attorney James Birnbaum. However, the diocese cautioned the move should not be taken as a sign of Umberger's guilt or innocence.   Umberger, who was arrested Wednesday, was released Thursday on a $10,000 signature bond and ordered not to have contact with children or use a computer. Online court filings did not list a personal defense attorney.

The case against Umberger began when police received a report that he had been acting 'suspiciously' at a Lake Delton water park in July 2009, according to the criminal complaint. A family had told Noah's Ark Water Park employees that Umberger was sitting near a kiddie pool and following boys into the men's restroom, and the employees called police, according to a Lake Delton Police report. Umberger told an officer he had a season pass and was near the restrooms because he had prostate problems and had to urinate often, the report said.

The officer told Umberger that park officials had revoked his season pass and drove him to his car. The officer noted she questioned Umberger for an hour and he never had to use the restroom. Noah's Ark Operations Manager Justin Strayer said in a statement Thursday that Umberger remains on the park's watch list.

Lake Delton officers shared the report with police in Onalaska, who discovered Umberger had a website as well as a Facebook account that listed many young boys as friends. Onalaska police turned the case over to the state Justice Department.  During an interview with a justice department agent Wednesday, Umberger denied any inappropriate sexual contact with children during his 30 years as a priest and said nothing inappropriate happened at the water park, according to the criminal complaint.

Umberger allegedly told the agent, however, that he found people could become sexually attracted to him when they were 12 or 13 years old and he was attracted to boys between the ages of 12 and 15 or older. Former Milwaukee Archbishop Rembert Weakland ordained Umberger in 1980. Weakland resigned as archbishop in 2002 after admitting the archdiocese secretly paid $450,000 to a man who accused Weakland of sexual abuse.

Umberger served multiple stints around central and western Wisconsin, including stops at parishes in Arcadia, La Crosse, Mauston, Wonewoc and Elroy. He describes himself on his website as a self-taught computer user, saying he bought his first computer in 1984 through the mail and never has had a computer class of any kind.

In August 2005 then-Bishop Jerome Listecki, now the archbishop of Milwaukee, named Umberger webmaster for the Diocese of La Crosse and the following year he was named to a committee to select software for the diocese.

Jessica Kircher — an associate of Birnbaum, the diocese attorney — said in an e-mail to the Associated Press that the diocese was not aware of Umberger's alleged inappropriate computer use. Milwaukee Archdiocese spokeswoman Gillian Lester-George said in an e-mail that Listecki was "surprised and saddened" to hear about Umberger's arrest.  'Archbishop Listecki had no previous indication that there were any potential issues that would have prevented Fr. Pat from serving in public ministry,' Lester-George wrote."
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Sometimes perpetrators of these crimes explain themselves, Father Umberger seems to be willing to own what's obvious, he was "attracted" to young boys and was "aroused" by images of these children. 

Here we have the conundrum for my Church which has once again expressed its will that priest be celibate and that the ordination of women is a "grave" crime.  Don't get the connection?  The Catholic Church does that's why it reiterated these ideas as part of it's new expression of policies relating to child sex abuse by clergy. 

My Church is hip to the digital world, but continues to demand that the faithful embrace its fantastic delusion that the sexuality in the male human beings that are its priests can be sublimated to make them more perfect representatives of Jesus Christ on earth.  This, sadly, continues the willful blindness and stupidity by the pathetic old men in the Vatican, and their zealous defenders in the incredibly shrinking world of Catholicism in America and around the world.

CVS Drugstore Manager Indicted on Child Porn Charges

A Phoenix CVS Pharmacy manager has been indicted on child porn charges according to AZCentral.com after images saved under his named at the photo kiosk were detected by a co-worker:

"A Phoenix man was indicted this week on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor stemming from his arrest after child pornography images were found at the Fountain Hills pharmacy where he worked.

Michael Brown (mug shot), 49, was arrested in late June when another manager at the CVS Pharmacy discovered pornographic photographs of minor girls saved to the photo kiosk under Brown's name at the store. Brown also worked as a manager at the store. A search warrant was served to Brown's home and car, where hundreds of photographs and USB drives containing child pornography, child erotica and adult pornography were discovered, a court document said.

A prepared statement from Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said many of the photographs contain girls who appear to be under 13 years old.

'Children are so trusting and vulnerable and, unfortunately, these traits often make them easy to exploit,'  Romley said in the statement. 'This office takes crimes against children extremely seriously and we will continue to prosecute these cases vigorously.'

Each count of sexual exploitation of a minor is a class 2 felony, and considered a dangerous crime against children, according to the release."
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A little off-topic, here, but as you will recall, Romley is the former Maricopa County attorney and the current Maricopa County attorney having replaced Andrew Thomas who was Sheriff Joe Arpaio.  It's refreshing to see actual crimes being prosecuted in Maricopa County as opposed to local enforcement of federal immigration laws by show sweeps of Hispanic citizens, children, and undocumented residents.

Pediatric Dentist Gets 6 Years for Child Porn, Nice!

A St Charles, Mo. Pediatric Dentist, Dr. Anthony Rizzuti, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for child pornography according to  the Stltoday.com (St. Louis Post Dispatch website.)  Obviously, this story is shades of  Delaware pediatrician Earl B. Bradley that I and about every other news and blawger reported on late last year.  This is from Robert Patrick:s story:

"A pediatric dentist from St. Charles caught in an Internet sex sting in 2008 was sentenced Thursday to six years in federal prison on a child pornography possession charge. Dr. Anthony R. Rizzuti was arrested in June 2008 by Maryland Heights police after driving there from his home to meet, and have sex with, what he thought was a 14-year-old girl, prosecutors say. The girl, 'Hannah' was really a Maryland Heights police officer. In an ensuing investigation, police uncovered child pornography on Rizzuti's computer.

The 2008 arrest followed the third time that Rizzuti corresponded with an undercover police officer online, according to court documents and testimony.  In March 2005, Rizzuti had similar conversations with a Dublin, Ohio, police officer pretending to be a 14-year-old girl. Rizzuti bought the girl a plane ticket to San Francisco so they could meet there and have sex, prosecutors say.  It was not clear what happened to the 2005 investigation and another investigation briefly mentioned Thursday.

Rizzuti's lawyers argued that he did not intend to have sex with either 'girl' and was engaging in fantasy online chats with people who could have been any age.  But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Livergood cited records of the Ohio chats in which the 'girl' mentioned her age five times. Rizzuti's psychologist, Luis Rosell, said Rizzuti was a low risk to commit other crimes, or have sexual contact with children. izzuti was sexually inexperienced, and his online chats were an outlet, part of his 'fantasy life,' Rosell said. But even there, Rosell said, Rizzuti met frustration.

'The adults don't talk sexual,' Rosell said, adding that only the 14- and 15-year-olds would engage in sexual conversations with Rizzuti.At least three of those 'teens,' of course, were police officers prowling for child predators.

Rizzuti pleaded guilty to the pornography charge in December. In addition to the six-year sentence, U.S. District Judge Rod Sippel placed Rizzuti on supervised release for life. He will also have to register as a sex offender. Rizzuti still faces a felony charge in St. Louis County of attempted enticement of a child in the Internet sting case."
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We kid ourselves when we think a professional certificate, white coat, or business card denotes something trustworthy especially when it relates to those we trust with our children.  As I have said, ad nauseum, pedophilia, sexual predators are not limited by wealth, education or social class.  I know this sound preachy, but it needs to be said, our job as parents is to be fully present with our children when they interact with adults. 

When I launched into that part of my law practice that was directed to tracking down these people I trusted that my awareness of the capacity for a black heart would instill in me a sense of who was lying when they denied doing these things to children.  How little I knew, how little I know!  The capacity for persons in these trust relationships to exploit and injure those in their care is startling.  It seems to me that there is no higher calling than to end the evil exploitation of children by adults.  This comes in many forms, in many places, none of it can be justified.

Octogenarian Former-Mayor Gets 2 Years for Child Porn!

The Anchorage Daily News reports on the octogenarian ex-mayor sentenced to prison for child porn.  This is story is baffling, the story:

"An 81-year-old Hydaburg (picture of community, above) man was sentenced Monday to two years in federal prison for possessing child porn.  Robert Armour Sanderson, a former mayor of the Southeast town, was caught after he ordered two videos from an undercover postal inspector during a sting operation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

A later search of Sanderson's home found 170 images of child pornography in his bedroom, the U.S. Attorney's office says. Sanderson, who had no criminal history prior to his arrest, was indicted in October. He pled guilty in April. His federal public defender says he is a community leader and has served as a guide and historian to the area for writers and anthropologists.

Hydaburg is on the southwest corner of Prince of Wales Island."
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Why?  Absolutely pathetic.  I wish there was greater detail about Mr. Sanderson, I'd like to hear his explanation for Mr. Sanderson's interest and behavior.  Child pornography as I've said repeatedly on Bad Lawyer, is not a victimiless crime. 

Speaking of the baffling nature of this awful crime, Canoe (the best source for Canadian News) reports on the London, Ontario cop charged with child porn on his lap top computer. 

Look at Kiddie Porn, Jeff Anderson Will Sue You!

The great Jeff Anderson, clergy sex abuse attorney par excellence is threatening to use a new federal statute--Masha's law, to go after you if you are looking at child porn according to a report at the Pioneer Press website.  This is an excerpt from the report by Emily Gurnon:

"A St. Paul attorney has vowed to track down and expose people who so much as open a computer file with child pornography as part of a new initiative designed to stop the sexual exploitation of children at its source. Jeff Anderson said he filed a civil suit in U.S. District Court this morning against former St. Paul schoolteacher and foster parent Gregg Alan Larsen and 100 as-yet-unnamed child pornography downloaders. Larsen, 49, of Minneapolis was indicted May 19 and charged with production, distribution and possession of child porn.

'If you choose to download images of child pornography, we will find you, we will track you and we will expose you,' Anderson said.

[Anderson] said his office is working with police, specifically the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children task force, to trail the digital footprints of downloaded material — whether it is viewed on a computer or a phone. He promised to send out press releases as the names of offenders who view and trade images are revealed and add their names to the lawsuit."
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People curious about this evil garbage need to know that the digital fingerprint of this stuff can not be scrubbed from their hard drives.  Worse, once seen it can not be unseen.  As I said I bumped into some of these images as part of child sex abuse civil prosecutions in police files.  Child porn is sick, disturbing, and soul destroying.  Never forget the face of Sean O'Toole, an attorney, who killed himself when Sean came to recognize who he became and what he contributed to when he downloaded kiddie porn.

Even Prosecutors and Pastors Get Caught with Child Porn

The St. Louis Post Dispatch has the report of the prosecutor and former municipal court judge caught downloading and viewing child pornography.  "Curiosity," is what George Richard "Dick" Fox termed his actions costing him a 2 year prison term.  Attorney Fox does not see what "harm" his activities caused. 

At the same website, there's the account of the former Pastor, Andrew Spalleck, (pic) who's off to the penitentiary for sharing child porn.

Bad Lawyer  has repeatedly explored this subject and the types of people caught up in prosecutions for engaging in production, possession, and dissemination of this material.  This is a victim-full crime.  A crime that can't be committed unless children are exploited.  But, something a good friend of mine said many years ago that I know to be true--when you "get away" with this crime you really never get away.  You take on darkness from the crime, it is with you at a seed level.  In my years of civil prosecution of child sex abuse, I came across some of this stuff in police files that became part of evidence in cases, and from witnesses and victims of child sex abuse.  This is terrible soul-killing stuff.

That any one's child, anywhere,  is exploited to produce this material should outrage all of us.

Affirmative Defense to Prosecution for Child Porn Discovered. . .

Carlos Simon-Timmerman a NYC pizza deliver guy traveled to Puerto Rico with an adult video in his baggage that resulted in a prosecution in Puerto Rico for possession of child porn according to the New York Post.  The Post article reports:

[In Mr. Simon-Timmerman's luggage customs discovered a] DVD called 'Little Lupe the Innocent' in his bags as he passed through San Juan Airport security on his way back to the city.  The agents said the actress in the video, porn star Lupe Fuentes (pic, uh the cleanest one I could locate via Google images), appeared to be underage. Mr. Simon-Timmerman was cuffed and taken into custody.  But Simon-Timmerman was sprung earlier this month after Fuentes flew to Puerto Rico and proved in court that she was 19 at the time the film was made.  'I'm thankful to her,' his mom, Eff Simon, told The Post yesterday. 'It was a big relief.'

Simon said her son had been visiting his sister last year in Venezuela when he bought the DVD in a flea market, believing it was nothing more than legal smut.  When Simon-Timmerman arrived in San Juan last Aug. 11, customs agents found porn videos, including: 'Little Lupe the Innocent -- Do Not Be Fooled By Her Baby Face.'"
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Nice.

Child Porn--Even the Police Do It

The Bakersfield.com website has this report ont he arrest of a Bakersfield Police officer snared in a chld porn sting.  This is from the report by Jason Kotowski:

"A Bakersfield police officer who admitted to engaging in online chats describing rape and murder fantasies involving children was arrested by the FBI Friday on a criminal complaint alleging possession and receipt of child pornography, detectives said in the criminal complaint.Christopher Kent Bowersox, 38, was removed from duty and placed on administrative leave when the allegations first surfaced, and he resigned earlier this week, a Bakersfield Police Department news release said. Bowersox had been a detective in the department and worked there since 2002."

[. . . ]On Nov. 6, 2009, Bakersfield police served a search warrant at Bowersox's residence, according to the criminal complaint. Two computers and two external hard drives were seized as evidence, and detectives found digital images and digital video containing child pornography, the complaint filed in federal court saidThere were also five digital images of what appeared to be surveillance photographs of students on the Bakersfield High School campus, the criminal complaint said.

Detectives interviewed Bowersox, who told them he had a Yahoo! account with the username 'cbowersox' and he used the name 'Colby' as his identity on the Internet, the criminal complaint said. It also says Bowersox 'reluctantly described' sharing fantasies with others in online chat rooms about 'things between men and boys and violence between men and boys.'"
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I made the claim, last week that even law enforcemnt get caught in this crime.  I knew I would be able to show you anecdotal evidence (I see news accounts regularly) without looking very hard.  This story came in the ordinary course of looking at local websites, not a search.

Civil Rights Activist, Child Porn Hound

The Cape Cod Times is reporting on the case of John Perry Ryan a long time civil rights activist who collected and distributed tens of thousands of images of child pornography some of the children were as young as 2 years old.  I found the story interesting because there is a definite peek into the mindset of this child porn collector via Mary Ann Bragg's article:
"A former Cape Cod civil rights activist was sentenced yesterday to 7½ years in prison for what a Vermont federal district court judge called the most 'egregious' child pornography case he'd seen.  John Perry Ryan, 62, of Braintree, Vt., will report to federal prison authorities March 9 to serve his sentence. After serving his prison time, Ryan will be under supervised release for five years, said U.S. District Judge William Sessions in a Burlington courtroom.

Ryan lived in Provincetown and worked across the Cape in the 1980s and '90s on issues involving gay people, Native Americans, AIDS patients, blacks and community policing.  He pleaded guilty last summer, about two weeks before his trial date, to two counts of transporting child pornography. U.S. immigration authorities first learned of his Internet activity following a tip from Swiss officials that in 2006 Ryan was communicating with an individual in Switzerland. While the case involved the Swiss person was pending, the government learned Ryan had also allegedly sent child pornography to a person in Seattle.  The tens of thousands of images and videos on his computer included children as young as 2 and sadomasochistic acts involving children.

During the three hours of proceedings in the fifth-floor courtroom, Ryan sat attentively, with his fingers sometimes pressed against his lips. When he stood and spoke asking for leniency, he seemed invigorated as though debating an issue of public importance. He has a slight stoop and appeared to have difficulty hearing at times.  'I had all this time on my hands,' he said. 'I have an obsessive personality. I was sitting there pressing a button and things are going to the farthest corner of the earth.'

Dressed in a work shirt and casual pants, he left the courtroom with a solemn look on his face yesterday. He declined to comment.  In the hallway outside the courtroom, his partner, John Caruso, cried as a dozen friends gathered around. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wendy Fuller brushed quickly past and disappeared around a corner.

Michael Touchette, a forensic examiner of digital media testified yesterday there were about 24,000 pornography photographs on a computer taken from Ryan's home. About half had been looked at, Touchette said. Many were of children between the ages of 2 and 14 engaged in sexual acts, some with adults. Some photos showed sadomasochistic images of children, those who 'appeared to be distraught or in harm's way,' he said.  Ryan also had about 100 child pornography videos on his computer, Touchette said. He read through chats that Ryan had participated in, one of which referred to children as a profane type of 'meat,' he said. In one line of chat conversation, Ryan said he wanted to "snuff," or kill a child after sex. Another of Ryan's chat lines, Touchette said, was 'the younger the better.'

'It's not a standard child pornography case,' said Fuller in court. "'Sucker punch them in the mouth to make them submit.' Who writes that?' During the period covered by the charges, investigators matched Ryan's activity on the computer as a time when Caruso was scheduled to be at work, according to court records.

Ryan told the court yesterday he'd become involved in child pornography during an isolated period at home in Vermont. He said he was partly interested in researching adult taboos and other fantasies that adults kept secret until the advent of the Internet. Ryan said he was a computer novice, having first gotten a computer in 2002. He said he got obsessed with pressing 'the button' on his computer, and sometimes didn't realize the volume of photos he was downloading.  He started looking at child pornography when someone in an Internet chat room sent him a link, he said. Over time, Ryan said he began to dissociate himself from the content of the images and the chats he had. He characterized himself as a person who would never hurt a child.  As part of his sentencing — and upon his release from prison — Ryan will have to register as a sex offender in any state where he resides or is active, Sessions said.

Seven people who are friends of Ryan's spoke to Sessions asking for leniency.  Ryan has been confined to his home with an electronic bracelet since his arraignment in 2007. His supporters had hoped for a similar set-up for his sentence. 'I traveled from Cape Cod to try and prevent what I perceive is a real tragedy, sending John to prison,' said Bourne attorney Lee Berger, who met Ryan during a civil rights issue with the Wampanoag tribe in Mashpee"
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This case supports one of the points I made previously about Child Porn arising as "content" in response to the development of internet technologies; and, the story is proof of the ensnaring aspect of the same technology. 

This "perp" describes something I believe to be the case for many users of the internet, including me, the internet is addictive.  The anonymity allows you to explore aspects of your character which can get pretty ugly and in Mr. Ryan's case, illegal.  The other aspect of this story that is interesting for me is that Mr. Ryan appears to have been a gay man in a loving relationship with a committed partner.  People involved in child porn can not be characterized by class, politics, education, sexual orientation, or occupation.

Child Porn

Child Pornography, that is the depiction of children in sexually graphic photographs or video--is the subject of endless reports of arrests and prosecutions at local news websites around the country and here in OurCity in OurState.   In fact the sheer numbers of reports of persons of all sorts of backgrounds (see pic), including instances of law enforcement officials, ensnared in possession ofchild pornography arrests (usually for computer images of child sex)  is astounding. 

Recently the New York Times ran an interesting piece about a young adult who was the subject of the so-called "Misty" series of child pornographic images.  "Misty" in actuality, Amy, has been seeking "restitution" from the collectors of her pornographic images who are arrested and prosecuted.  The print article on the case indicated that Amy's perpetrator was an Uncle who is now incarcerated.  Amy obtained  $3.4 million dollar civil verdict which is largely uncollected (boy, do I know thst feeling.) 

When images from the video, and photographs that the Uncle published on the internet turn up on the computers of men who are prosecuted for collecting child porn, Amy receives a notice pursuant to a federal law.  An attorney is aggressively pursuing restitution form these men.  The link at the Times' website also links to opinion pieces of leading experts on constitutional and criminal law discussing the implications of the novel approach of Amy's attorney. 

In my career I've had the awful experience of seeing small amounts of this stomach turning stuff.  From time to time chld pornography would rear up in civil cases I prosecuted.  I don't recall a single prosecution for it until recent years.  In fact as I've talked about child pornography on Bad Lawyer in the past,--it is my feeling that the crime and the ability to prosecute it as a crime, is in large part a creature of the internet.  While the crime existed in an underground way pre-internet, and believe me it existed--the chain of custody problems, and the ability to "data map" it's possession is a direct development of computer technology.  Further law enforcement was enabled to set up stings of persons with a proclivity for child pornography or the exploitation of children was enabled by the internet. 
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One of the stories that I realize, I omitted from telling, but from time to time I am reminded by friends who knew about the events at the time and who ask me to relate the story on the blawg, concerns the period following my acquittal on the felonious assault charges brought by the corrupt former Sheriff and his pal the OurCounty prosecutor after a courthouse scuffle.  

Within days of the acquittal I began receing emails from "a child" seeking to "talk to me" according to the subject line that would show up in my email box.  I would delete these emails with out reading them, but they continued.  Eventually I opened one and it was a sexually provocative email from a purported "13 year old," girl.  I responded with a curt answer that I was calling the police, printing out the email, and giving it to the local police--and that I was to receive nothing further from the sender.  I called the local police, I printed out the email and I delivered it to the police station.

 Do I think I was receiving an email from a "13 year old girl?"  Not a chance.  Some idiot with the Sheriff was trying to see if I could be set up, I have no doubt in my mind on this count.  Amazingly I don't receive sexually provocative emails from 13 year olds anymore.

Sean O'Toole Is Dead

I was sent this link by a friend who thinks I may have known Sean O'Toole;  he looks familiar.  But I did not know him.  The article by Donna J. Miller from Cleveland.com which is the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, grabbed my attention for another reason, let me quote from it:

"A former assistant Medina County public defender convicted for sharing child pornography on the Internet was found hanging by a sheet last week in his cell at the Ashtabula County Jail.

Sean O'Toole, 42, faced up to 20 years in federal prison. He would have been sentenced Jan. 26.   His body was found at 5:35 a.m. Thursday in his one-man cell, Ashtabula County Coroner's Chief Investigator Rich Mongell said. O'Toole was not on suicide watch and gave no indication that he had become suicidal, Mongell said.   The body was sent to the Cuyahoga County Coroner's Office, which had not yet sent the findings to the Ashtabula coroner, who will make a formal ruling.   O'Toole pleaded guilty in September to sending and receiving pornographic photographs and videos. Federal records show that his computer held many sexually-explicit images of infants and children being sexually-abused and raped. His Internet screen name was Daddy4slut.  Investigators searched O'Toole's Lakewood home on May 22 after a five-month investigation that began when O'Toole used an Internet site set up by an FBI agent that allowed file sharing, according to an affidavit filed seeking the search warrant.

In September, O'Toole wrote a letter to a judge accepting responsibility for his actions.   'One of my biggest regrets in all of this is that I may be responsible for exposing someone to child porn that is now as obsessive as I was,'  O'Toole wrote. 'When I was arrested, I had a family. Now I don't... I used to think I was an honorable man. Now I realize I am neither. Not honorable, or a man.'  O'Toole's former attorney, James Kersey, was saddened when he learned of the death.   'He was a nice, pleasant, intelligent guy,' Kersey said. 'He must have felt the sentence was so severe, so steep that he had nowhere to go and took his own life.'"
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I think attorney Kersey is wrong, I don't think the length of the the prospective prison sentence had anything to do with Sean O'Toole hanging himself.  Something in what O'Toole wrote the Judge is telling me that this poor bastard had a heart, a soul, and a conscience.  He knew who he was; he knew what he was; and, he could not figure a way to transcend his horror. 

This was a lawyer.  I see myself as a lawyer, a father, a domestic partner (for the blonde Super Lawyer,) the magnitude of my professional/personal disaster is different than O'Toole's.  He was the sort of person I pursued as a lawyer--and, yet I feel a strong connection through his words--"not honorable, or a man." 

I had lunch downtown, yesterday--with a colleague to discuss going back to work, "in house."  The lunch was in the restaurant in my old office building which meant I had to drive downtown, see and walk by people I know and worked with for a quarter century.  By this time in the unfolding of events, my "fall," is public knowledge and doubtless fodder for the kind of gossip I listened to before it was my turn to be disgraced.  I saw the partner of the lawyer who sent my bank statements to disciplinary counsel.  I ran into a married couple who long practiced law together in OurTown--they hugged me and told me that the 24 months would speed by--and I'd be back.  I ran into Dick Ahole, who wanted to pump me for information.  "So what are you going to do now?," he asked.  I shrugged my shoulders. 

Sunday, my son and I saw Avatar which has a protagonist a paraplegic veteran.  The best part of this move apart from the innovative visuals turns on the transcendence of this paraplegic into another life form.  This same theme was played out for me earlier in the week when I heard Terry Gross on Fresh Air replay her interview with Teddy Pendergrass, the great Philly soul singer who died last week.  Pendergrass was one of the SEX SYMBOLS of his time, as lead singer of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes, and later as a solo peroformer.  In his prime Pendergrass survived a devastating car accident, quadriplegia and suicidal depression.   Pendergrass said he survived his devastating physical injury after he held a mock funeral for himself on the advice of a psychologist who was also a quadriplegic.  Pendergrass told Terry Gross, that he was able to transcend his injury and become a new man--a highly successful entertainer until he death last week. 

Sean O'Toole is dead.  He had been an attorney;  and, clearly he was mentally ill.  After his disgrace, he saw no way to transcend who and what he had become.  He could not live with the disgrace.  But in his final words to the Judge, "nor honorable, or a man"--maybe,  just maybe, Sean O'Toole regained a little honor and some of his manhood.   I write about a lot of shitheads on this blawg, very few of them have "shame," which to my way of thinking has something to do with honor and manhood.  Rest in peace, Sean O'Toole.