Evidence Missing in Karr Child Porn Case

[kskiska]

SANTA ROSA, Calif. (AP) - Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.

Authorities seized the computer from Karr's home in 2001 and copied the entire hard drive onto paper, including the five illicit images, said Sheriff's Department Lt. Dave Edmonds. He said authorities looked for the computer for the past two weeks, but have had no luck.

``We did an exhaustive search. We have probably hundreds of thousands of evidence items and we're certain at this point, through a couple of weeks of effort, that it's not misplaced inside of our property unit,'' he said.

Karr, 41, has maintained his innocence in the case.

On Tuesday, prosecutors offered Karr a plea deal that would waive three of the five child pornography possession charges against Karr if he pleaded guilty to the two remaining ones. Karr would get credit for time served, would be placed on probation for three years and would be required to register as a sex offender.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6094971,00.html

[IndianaGreen]

1. Is this man a walking disaster to all prosecutors?

Karr is most definitely a sick and perverted individual with an obsession with murdered girls. He should be committed to a mental institution for evaluation and treatment.

[redacted]

2. LMAO: I have friends in that sheriffs dept and I know the original

prosecutor on the case.

To their credit at the Sheriff's office: between the time Karr fled and the time he was captured the Sheriff's office moved into a new building.

The case they have against him is weak--you have to prove that the images are of ACTUAL children (and not digitally created). That's nearly impossible. Best they can do is get him to admit to something so he will have to register as a sex offender. I have no doubt he would not have been brought back here had this not been such a high profile situation. And the DA will look very bad if they lose the case against him. So there will be some serious negotiating going on.

[Vinca]

3. In the end, it appears Karr will be the winner

having gotten a cushy, business class flight from the other side of the world paid for by the tax payers.

[pinerow]

4. Child porn case against Karr hits a snag

Prosecutors can’t find computer that allegedly contained illegal images

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - Efforts to prosecute one-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr on child pornography charges should not be jeopardized even though his computer that allegedly contained the images was lost, Sonoma County authorities said Wednesday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14937513/

Keystone Kops...:wtf:

[soothsayer]

5. Sorry. You can't prosecute someone when you lose the evidence.

What kind of stupid child porn charges are misdemeanors anyway?

[pinerow]

6. good question...maybe one of our

resident DU lawyers can explain that...:shrug:

[zreosumgame]

8. this whole thing is FUBAR'ed

first the Bolder DA wants 'credit' for solving Jon Benet's murder, she fucks THAT up, now Sonoma county (I live just south of there, and work in that county at a hospital here and i can tell you right now, Boss Hog was a genius compared to the cops here) 'loses' a computer... bet you anything you want that it is sitting at some cops home so HE can browse porn sites. All in the name of the 'law' of course. LOL!

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. The kind that are used...

More to smear and create fear than they are to confront a real and substantive problem.

Are such tactics really used? You betcha. Seen it myself. When the enforcers of said laws become zealots, such tactics become commonplace.

[bluestateguy]

7. I don't care how guilty he is, if they lost the evidence,

then they can't prosecute. Perhaps the police will be more careful next time if the charges against Karr are dismissed because of this obvious negligence.

[fooj]

10. Isn't this the guy they extradicted from Thailand?

[pinerow]

12. One and the same...

nt

[eFriendly]

11. Prosecutors offer plea deal to John Mark Karr

SANTA ROSA, Calif. - One-time JonBenet Ramsey murder suspect John Mark Karr was offered a plea deal Tuesday on child pornography charges that would free him on probation.

Assistant District Attorney Joann Risse said prosecutors would waive three of the five child pornography possession charges against him if he pleaded guilty on two remaining charges.

Karr, 41, would get credit for time served and would be placed on probation for three years.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14912133/

Now, I don't know that this is a direct result of the computer missing from the evidence room or not, but it sure seems to me that the prosecution's case against Karr is in the shitter... so much so that this guy is probably going to walk on the charges.

[zreosumgame]

13. another note for this

the Sonoma couty people never told Karr's lawyer about this, he learned it from a reporter. So in fact Karr may have cause to sue the county into the ground for that. dumbass'es.

[pinerow]

14. dupe

[Supersedeas]

15. and this was a case the Homeland Security helped deport him for??

[InkAddict]

16. Things that make you go hmmmmm......

child porn misdemeanors versus government coup about 30(?) days later......:shrug:

[fooj]

17. IMO, things that make you go way more than HMMMMMM...

Thailand? Karr? Govt. Coup.?

WTF is going on?

[daleo]

18. "copied the entire hard drive onto paper"?

How many hundred trees would that take. What exactly does that mean, anyway?

I suspect a screen shot alleged to have come from someone's computer would not be adequate evidence for a conviction, as long as the defendant had a reasonably skilled lawyer.

[zreosumgame]

19. just imagine printing out 80 GB on paper

[pinerow]

20. I didn't think about the trees...lol

nt

[daleo]

21. If all 80 gigs were text

I calculate it would take about 10 trees, 1 foot in radius, each 50 ft tall.

80 colums X 66 rows = 5280 characters.

80 billion characters would take about 15 million pages.

At 1000 pages per volume, that would be about 15000 books.

At ten books per cubic foot, that would be 1500 cubic feet.

A one foot radius tree would have to be about 500 feet tall to have that much pulp.

So, say 10 trees, each 50 feet tall.

If one were to assume these were all pictures, the amount of paper needed would be a lot less. Still, it wouldn't be easy. You would wear out a lot of printers too.

[Bariztr]

22. Shouldn't take the deal

I am a criminal defense lawyer and I practice about an hour and a half drive south of Santa Rosa. I can tell you that if they lost the hard drive and only have 5 pictures that is an extremely weak case. Why should he agree to lifetime registration as a plea deal. That's no bargain to him as a defendant.

From what i understand they raided his homein April 2001, seized his computer and charge him with possession of five photos depicting "child pornography" despite the fact they had been deleted and buried in the unallocated space on the computer, thus rendering the photos inaccessible to Karr. It took a highly trained computer expert using sophisticated software techniques to recover the photos before Sonoma could view them.

They need to determine the name(s) and age(s) of the depicted "child" or "children" during the five years since Karr's arrest? If not, Karr's could easily get an acquittal under the California statute, which I think is PC 311. Plus why the secrecy in refusing to release the police report, warrant affidavit, etc., to the public as required under California law?

As a defense lawyer I smell a big rat here.