Agents question, search expert lawyer in child porn cases

[Algorem]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/111977831925781.xml&coll=2

Sunday, June 26, 2005

...Boland's lawyer, Ian Friedman, said he suspects his client's success as a courtroom consultant is the reason for the federal investigation, though he would not discuss the specifics of the FBI interrogation.

"This is absolutely terrifying and chilling for the precedent it sets," Friedman said Saturday. "The government is now arresting expert witnesses who provide testimony in child-pornography cases."

..."What it's saying is that any person wanting to help the defense in one of these cases is now being targeted by the government," Friedman said. "Here we have an educator, a teacher, an officer of the court being persecuted for something that is considered unfavorable in the public's eye.

"The ripple effect from this is far-reaching. I expect a lot of people are going to be coming to Dean's defense before this is over."

[wakeme2008]

1. Sounds like Bush's FBI has no REAL cases to work on

:grr:

[NashVegas]

2. How Does One Become an Expert on Kiddie Porn?

How do you separate those who view kiddie porn with decent intentions from those who view it to charge up their sexual fantasies?

You can't, not without a psychic mind-reader. That's why Pete Townshend had some major explaining to do when he became a poster child for the 'it's only safe viewing for people we designate as non-menaces' anti-kiddie-porn officials working to stem it.

Apparently this guy ain't designated.

[wakeme2008]

3. If you were an FBI agent and really liked kiddie porn

MMmmmm where would you try to get assigned...

[MindPilot]

4. or more accurately, if you really liked kiddie porn,

what would be the best job to have?

[mongo]

6. Sounds like this guy was an expert on digital imaging

FBI agents approached Boland on Friday afternoon as he left the Cleveland Bar Association offices in the Galleria, where he had just finished teaching a class to lawyers about digital imaging, Friedman said. Agents searched his car, then took him into custody.

Currently, an image of an actual child that is lewd (nudity), or engaged in a sexual act is illegal. A created image - no matter how disgusting is not. Sounds like this guy can tell you if an image is photoshopped or not.

Now, as bad as it may seem that you can own child porn as long as it is "fake", the original language in the COPA that would have made images like this illegal was so broad that any depiction of sexual activity or nudity or lewdness would have been illegal. The movie "The Blue Lagoon" would have been child porn under this law - and that portion of the COPA has been struck down.

It's a real grey area.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

10. I recall a case several years ago where a mother had taken pictures....

...of her kids playing in the bathtub, and then had a local fast photo processing store develop her pictures. Yes, the children were naked in the bathtub...imagine that! I believe this event took place in North Carolina.

The next thing she knew, based on the comments of the store clerk about the pictures she had taken, the local police arrested her for child pornography and her kids were taken by the state child services group.

Several months later, she was found "not guilty" by a court of law.

But the damage done to her reputation is permanent. The psychological damage done to her family is going to be hard to heal.

And all of this was brought about by some clerk in a photo shop.

[mongo]

14. Actually photo labs have mandatory reporting now.

Your local CVS is watching you...

[LiberalFighter]

16. Don't the FBI have experts in kiddie porn?

They pose as dealers and collectors of kiddie porn on the internet. Wouldn't they have to be an expert to know how to pass themselves off?

[bemildred]

5. Another witch hunt.

There used to be this same sort of problem with all porn, back when it was illegal. Who is an "expert"? Who decides who is an "expert"? Do you allow any experts at all? How to you protect the enforcers, the porn inquisition, from being contaminated by their contact with the taboo materials? When you outlaw possession or even looking at something, you raise a host of intractable issues, legally and otherwise, especially in a theoretically "free" country where human rights are supposed to be rigorously respected.

I do not mean by this, BTW, to imply that kiddie porn is not a problem or that pedos don't need to be dealt with, I'm just suggesting that police witch-hunts are not a good solution to the issue. I mean, look at Jackson, millions in the toilet, he's free as a bird, no good whatsoever done for abused children.

[mongo]

8. Technically, under federal law and in 40 states

It is legal for you to possess porn, but it is illegal for me to sell it to you.

I can still be arrested any day of the week for selling ANY movie in my inventory.

[bemildred]

12. True, there are all sorts of stupid laws on still on the books,

and more added every day. That always comes to mind when some
blowhard cop starts blathering about how they just can't ignore
this or that law that they have their knickers in a twist about,
they ignore 90% of the laws 100% of the time, and the other 10%
are applied very selectively.

[mongo]

15. Many people are charged every year - and plenty do jail time

Usually you end up serving out your sentence before you get a chance to appeal.

[bemildred]

17. I assume you are talking about selling porn in Comstock country.

I am sure you are correct. It's a form of harassment.

[ninkasi]

19. Useless question, really, considering who's in charge now...

Why can't we pass and enforce laws that make sense? Why can't we apply common sense to law enforcement? Face it, if a government agency really wants to charge you with something, with all of the laws on the books, and the way they can be interpreted, none of us are truly safe.

It is a waste of time, though, to prosecute "crimes" like this one, unless you completely throw all common sense to the wind, and twist and contort the law to achieve a specific outcome. I expect to see more and more of this kind of thing the longer we stay under this illegal regime's control.

[bemildred]

20. We could, but we don't.

The reason, I would say, is that it is not the goal of the lawmakers to make sense, and it is not goal of the law-enforcers to provide justice. Both are simply doing jobs, and the incentives in those jobs have nothing much to do with making sense or providing justice. If we want that, we are going to have to take a hand in the matter ourselves, and make sure the incentives work to encourage the sort of results we want, that is: see that stupid and self-serving lawmakers get to spend time with their families, and that corrupt, misguided, and ineffective cops are held accountable and their power is taken from them if they do not use it in the intended way.

[ninkasi]

22. You are right, 100%

The first thing that should happen, is that laws which protect and serve society at large are the ones which should apply, and be enforced. Instead, laws are written by corporations, or religious groups, or others with a special interest, and the rest of us pay the price.

The most glaring example that comes to my mind at the moment is the laws against marijuana. It's certainly no more dangerous than alcohol, and probably much less so. We could free up an enormous amount of prison space by doing away with making it a crime. We would have fewer taxes spent on prisons, and more tax revenues by the government regulating and taxing the sales.

We could have sensible laws to prohibit driving while impaired, as we do now with liquor and prescription drugs. Considering all of this, the only reason it remains illegal is that lobbyists from the drug companies and the liquor industry do not wish to have it compete with their sales.

It makes the unbalanced fundies feel superior to think that they are controlling something which expands the mind, and just might cause people to question their brand of mind control. I'm sure there are far better examples, but one thing that all such laws have in common is that they give government, at different levels, to have a sword to hang over the head of anyone they wish to persecute.

Nobody here, I hope, is so naive as to believe that corrupt law enforcement officers, while a tiny fraction of those in their field, have never given in to the temptation to plant drugs on those they find it convenient to incarcerate, or otherwise discredit. Since laws are now being written by big business, more and more, they will follow no common sense thinking, or rational reasoning.

What a shame, that a nation that started out with such promise, has come to this.

[mongo]

7. How much you wanna bet

that this guy has files from cases he has worked on as a court witness that will now be used as evidence against him.

[NashVegas]

9. That Was Kind of My Point

I'd find it hard to believe someone who's regularly called to testify in kiddie porn cases hasn't had some sort of hands on experience, if only as a collection of documents for study. How else do you get to be an expert?

Now, if they find those images and ... um, DNA on the computer screen, maybe they'll have a case. Otherwise ....

[wakeme2008]

11. I watched a kiddie porn expert testify in a trial in Ca.

He would not touch allege KP without a document from the local court and not take it out of state without a doc from the federal courts.

[OKthatsIT]

13. Child prom in the courts is a safegaurd control

because of so may GOP members involved in traffficking

[BiggJawn]

18. Chilling? Perhaps. Surprising? Not effin' hardly.

Not after the way I've seen some of these "Red Meat" "Good Progressives" around here start frothing at the mouth "PEDOPHILES! PREDATORS! PREDATORS! CHILD MOLESTERS! YOU'RE SUPPORTING CHILD MOLESTERS!"

Just because somebody has the gawd-dam gall to sugesst that a Sex Offender (if I MEANT "child molester" I would have SAID child molestor, so put your fuckin' torches and pitchfork away, Bunky...) just MIGHT have paid their Debt to Society upon their release from Prison...

I can just hear it now: "What kind of low-life SCUM would defend a Kiddie Porn CREEP, anyway?"

Just wait, maybe 10 years from now you'll be hearing "Just what kind of low-life SCUM would defend one of those Liberal Traitors, anyway?"

EVERYBODY deserves a defense, and a trial. Even Bush and Cheney.

[OzarkDem]

21. Boland has a good reputation

He worked for many years with Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason who is well known for having very good people work for him. He worked on the case defending the county against a lawsuit by Sam Sheppard's son, Sam Reese Sheppard, where the prosecutors proved Sam was guilty of the murder.

Dean apparently is an expert in digital imaging and computer technology, but I doubt his full practice is defending child molestors. He's also a Dem, which could explain some harrassment by the FBI.

On edit, link to his profile:

http://www.lkwdpl.org/lfiles/boland/