Uniquely Alaskan Justice in Child Porn Case?

The Anchorage Daily News had this remarkable account of the re-sentencing of former Anchorage police officer and child molester, Sammy Cohen:

Former Anchorage police officer Sammy Cohen (pic) will not serve any more jail time on his conviction for sexually abusing and exploiting his daughter.  State Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton on Thursday sentenced Cohen to 12 years in jail with eight suspended.

But Cohen will not return to jail because of the length of time he's already been incarcerated. Cohen's sentencing came five years after his arrest by police detectives on charges of sexually abusing his daughter and possessing child pornography. He was not convicted of touching his daughter sexually but rather of taking nude photographs of her, including some in which he made her pose.

Last October, a jury found Cohen, 56, guilty of abusing and exploiting his daughter a decade ago. She was 14 years old at the time. The jury based its findings mainly on topless and nude photos Cohen took of the girl that were obtained by police officers. The police began investigating Cohen after a federal agency alerted them that he had purchased child porn on the Internet.  Cohen has maintained his innocence on all the charges. He plans to appeal, his attorney John Cashion said Thursday.

Several young women, including his now-adult daughter who lives out of state, testified against Cohen during last fall's three-week trial. The other women said Cohen bought them gifts, gave them back rubs and did huge favors for them when they were underage or close to it; Cohen was not charged with abusing or exploiting them.

The jury acquitted him of several sex abuse charges -- one involving touching and groping his daughter. A juror explained later that the jurors felt comfortable convicting him on the evidence they saw in photographs, but not on counts for which they had to rely solely on the daughter's word about what happened.

The daughter and other family members did not attend Wednesday's sentencing hearing and the daughter did not file a victim statement. The affected family members 'want to put this behind them and want to have nothing to do with him anymore,' said state prosecutor John Skidmore.   Two off-duty police officers testified in Cohen's support, praising his strong work ethic and loyalty as a family friend. Also in the courtroom were other former co-workers: police detectives who investigated Cohen.

'They became intimate with the details of the case and wanted to see a full measure of justice done,' said police Lt. Dave Parker.

[Prosecutor] Skidmore argued in favor of a 20-year sentence with seven years suspended. He said the crime deserved a longer sentence than the norm given Cohen's role as a police officer.  Skidmore noted the high recidivism rate of sexual offenders who target children. Also, until Cohen admits his crime, his chances for rehabilitation are diminished, Skidmore said.

[Mr.] Cashion, Cohen's attorney, favored a sentence of two years in prison and three years of probation, saying that case law did not justify a longer sentence. He said that Cohen respects the judicial process and will follow his probation.

After a recess, Judge Wolverton imposed Cohen's 12-year sentence, with eight years suspended.  Wolverton told the courtroom that he specifically did not intend for Cohen to return to jail.  The judge said that while Cohen has a history of  'concerning behavior,' he believed that Cohen had  'very good prospects' as a probationer.
Cohen will not go to prison because he has already spent more than two-thirds of the four-year, unsuspended prison sentence in jail -- 1,024 days to be exact.  In Alaska, felons with good behavior do not need to serve the final third of their sentence, though they must return to jail to serve the remainder if they violate their probation.  Cohen spent a portion of that time in isolation due to his status as a former police officer and he was assaulted three times, once during transport, Cashion told the judge.

Cohen was an 11-year veteran of the Anchorage Police Department and was teaching at the police academy when he was arrested in 2005. He also served in the military for 23 years.  Cohen is now registered by the state as a sexual offender. Among the 18 conditions of his release, he must not contact the victim, he cannot have unsupervised contact with females under age 16 or have an e-mail account without his parole officer's permission, he cannot go to parks and playgrounds that minors use, and he and his property can be searched without a warrant for pornography, female minors or firearms.
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Wow!  Talk about getting a break, this guy was taking pornographic pictures of his daughter and her young friends.  Cohen was touching these children and they touched him.  Cohen spent less than 3 years incarcerated. 

Something about this story sounds Alaskan-specific.  That this guy did these acts and other officers were comfortable sitting in court in support, pretty amazing.

Even Elderly Men Collect Child Porn, Commit Rape

My pal Chris and I went out to catch the Crazy Heart film, the other day and he commented on the Child Porn post, wondering what prompted it.  I told him that at this point I am feel a little like a stone skipping from one local website to another and sometimes as I bounce from place to place I'm struck by the patterns in local prosecutions.  It was the frequency with which you see prosecutions of all sorts of folks that is striking to me.

On February 6th, Savannahnow.com had this article about the 80 year old man, sentenced for having more than 15,000 child porn images on his computer: 

"An 80-year-old Savannah man has been sentenced to serve two years in prison for his conviction on a charge of sexual exploitation of children.  David J. Hesrick was sentenced to 10 years total Thursday after Chatham County Superior Court Judge John E. Morse Jr. convicted him during a bench trial.  In addition to the sexual exploitation count, Morse also convicted the defendant on two counts of making false statements to police.  Evidence presented by Assistant District Attorney Emily Thomas showed police were called to Hesrick's southside home after he and his roommate quarreled, office spokeswoman Alicia Johnson said.  Officers found the flap was over the roommate's discovery of pornographic images of children on Hesrick's computer.  Investigators found at least 15,000 images and 12 videos containing pornographic images of children, Johnson said.."
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One of the first adult survivors of child sex abuse I represented was a woman named, "Star" who had been raped and sexually abused by her father who at the time of his civil prosecution was quite aged.  "Star" was agitated that this man was not behind bars because despite his age she assured me he was still an active perpetrator. 

Whenever "Star" learned of her father's whereabouts she would printout flyers with his picture, drive to this region of OurState and paper cars in shopping center parking lots.   She would give the local law enforcement copies of the flyers.  Sure enough, this aged perpetrator would abuse again, and eventually he was taken into custody and convicted of molesting a child. 

While I don't necessarily equate consumers of child porn with perpetrators of child sex abuse, elderly criminals of all sort continue to commit habitual crimes.  Experience tells me not to be surprised that the elderly abusers continue their lifelong habits of sexually exploiting children when they think they can get away with it; so many trusting parents are surprised to the detriment of their children.

Oh, the picture is of Giovanni Cocozza, a 77 year old serial rapist.