Man's life Over, Cops Decide He Watched Child Porn in First Class

Some judges do, indeed, take this crime very seriously, even when there are no mandatory sentences or mandatory guidelines

It wouldn't dawn on you to contact the police, to help them track down a child pornographer. That figures.

Well, according to Bill, there is no child pornography

Anyone who innocently acesses such material shouldn't have anthing to fear from the police, at least not in a democracy

but when you say that the police only have to type in a few keywords on your computer, and there will be records of everything they are looking for, perhaps you've got a right to be.

Being called brain dead by you is a compliment

Ex-teacher sent to prison in child porn case
Wednesday, February 15, 2012

PHILADELPHIA — A former West Chester Area School District teacher was sentenced Tuesday to 78 months in prison for distribution and possession of child pornography.

David Devine, 35, of Chester Heights, pleaded guilty on Nov. 14, 2011. He admitted that over the Internet on Aug. 17, 2009, he had distributed videos depicting children being sexually abused, and that on Aug. 4, 2010, he possessed more than 600 images of child pornography.

In addition to prison, U.S. District Court Judge Gene E.K. Pratter ordered Devine to serve seven years of supervised release and to begin serving his sentence Thursday.

Devine had been barred from ever teaching again and was sentenced to three to 23 months in prison on a single count of sexual abuse of children for possession of child pornography, a third-degree felony, in Common Pleas Court in Media.

The sentence handed down by Senior Judge Charles C. Keeler was far less than the minimum 11½ to 23 months sought by Assistant District Attorney Joseph Lesniak.

Devine, who taught in the West Chester Area School District and ran a summer camp, was arrested last year and charged in Delaware County with 500 counts of possession of child pornography. He pleaded guilty in July to 50 of those counts.

In addition to the Delaware County District Attorney’s office, the case was investigated by the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michelle Rotella and Michael Levy prosecuted the federal case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.
http://dailylocal.com/articles/2012/02/15/news/doc4f3bb1c8b2b0e006517783.txt

Phoenix police: Teacher collected child porn for 10 years
by DiAngelea Millar, Eugene Scott and JJ Hensley
Feb. 14, 2012
The Arizona Republic
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The North Ranch Elementary School teacher arrested this week on suspicion of sexually exploiting children told police that he had been collecting child pornography online for at least 10 years and that he was attracted to young boys, court records show.

Thomas Warner, 54, of Phoenix was arrested about 11 a.m. Monday after detectives found "numerous items of child pornography" on a computer inside his home in the 14000 block of North Coral Gables Drive, north of Thunderbird Road, police said. Several external thumb drives also were found containing hundreds of images of the same nature.

Warner taught fourth grade at North Ranch Elementary, 16406 N. 61st Place, a northeast Phoenix K-6 school in the Paradise Valley Unified School District.

He had been at North Ranch for six years and had a Department of Public Safety teacher clearance card, said Marty Macurak, district spokeswoman.

"He joined our district after completing his student teaching at Deer Valley Unified School District about 10 years ago," she said. "He taught at Indian Bend and Arrowhead (elementary schools) about seven years ago."

On Sunday, Phoenix police were notified by a computer repair company that a laptop computer had images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. Police found several hundred images of boys ages 8 to 12 engaged in sex acts, records show. Police said Warner admitted he had been collecting these images for more than a decade and that he was sexually attracted to boys in that age range.

"There is no indication that our students were harmed," she said. "We continue to be in touch with investigators and will keep our parent community apprised if any new information arises."

Warner "admitted that he uses his position as a teacher to compensate for the guilt he feels about viewing the images," the probable cause statement reads.

Macurak said the district placed Warner on administrative leave on Monday, "immediately after being notified of his arrest. He was not on school property when he was arrested." She also said that Principal Sarah HartleyCQ "informed parents of the arrest by telephone" late Monday afternoon "to allow the police time to release information following Warner's booking."

But on Tuesday morning, some preschool parents still had not heard about the incident. Sheba Bano's son attends preschool at North Ranch and was unaware that a fourth-grade teacher had been arrested.

"I don't think many of the parents know," she said. "Maybe because my son is in pre-K and on the other side of the school, I wasn't notified."

She was concerned about how the arrest will affect the school and the children. "The reputation of our school is at stake," Bano said. "Today's children are very intelligent and they observe. Who knows what they saw?"

Macurak said preschool parents were not informed because it is considered a separate program.

On Tuesday, North Ranch had a "care team" of counselors and psychologists available for parents, students and staff.

"Our parents' community has responded with support for the school, principal and staff," Macurak said. "They feel the same way we do, which is concern for the children's safety, saddened and betrayed."

Warner was booked into the Maricopa County Fourth Avenue Jail on 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, according to police.

Court records said Warner must post a $100,000 bond to be released on house arrest, where he will be electronically monitored. He will not be allowed access to computers and cannot have contact with anyone younger than 18.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/northvalley/articles/2012/02/14/20120214phoenix-police-teacher-collected-child-porn-10-years-abrk.html#ixzz1mTh917Oe

Quote:

Being called brain dead by you is a compliment

.

You welcome..........

Wellesley man sentenced to five years on child porn charges
By Matt Stout
February 14, 2012

A Wellesley man who federal authorities say traded child porn on an international network of child molesters was sentenced yesterday to five years in prison, marking the latest in a string of convictions connected to a now-defunct bulletin board.

Joseph Tierney, who pleaded guilty in August to a charge of conspiracy to distribute child pornography, was sentenced in Los Angeles federal court and ordered to undergo 20 years of supervised release following a 60-month prison term, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

Tierney, 24, was arrested as part of a probe into the “Lost Boy” bulletin board, a multinational ring in which dozens of members traded porn, tips on ducking police and ways to get into the child sex tourism trade, authorities said.

Tierney is one of 15 U.S. citizens who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted in connection with the network, authorities said. One other died after being charged. Six others have been charged with child molestation, according to federal authorities, and those arrested have spanned the globe, from Romania to Brazil. Young victims were discovered in at least four countries.

Also yesterday, another Massachusetts man was sentenced on child porn charges. Leominster’s Paul Proulx, 28, was ordered to serve five years probation, including the first six months on home confinement, federal authorities said.

Prosecutors had recommended 33 months in prison after Proulx pleaded guilty in November to possession of child porn.

The announcements follow a whirlwind of recent local arrests on child porn charges fueled, authorities say, by millions of dollars in grants and a crackdown on peer-run file-sharing sites.

In just the last month, police have arrested a teacher and librarian in Newton, a Northboro tennis instructor and a Needham man on charges of possessing child porn. The most serious charges were leveled against former second-grade Newton teacher David Ettlinger, who last week had multiple counts of indecent assault added to a mountain of charges filed following a January raid of his Brighton condo.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220214wellesley_perv_sentenced_to_five_years_on_child_porn_charges/srvc=home&position=also

Distributing child porn earned him more time.

Your argument that "breadwinners" should not be incarcerated is absurd--when "breadwinners" violate criminal laws, they deserve no special treatment

punishment should not end up doing far more harm to innocent people such as the offender children

are probably far safer with the pedophile behind bars, at least for a time.

Quote:

are probably far safer with the pedophile behind bars, at least for a time.

That an interesting theory Firefly however most children are harm in a sexual manner by their own family members not by the neighbor next door driven crazy with lust after downloading child porn.

Are you really that stupid?

That's a rhetorical question you asked BillRM, isn't it?

Child pornographers in Mass. not penalized enough, study shows
Written by Amelia Pak-Harvey
Feb 15, 2012

Recent rulings of child pornography cases in Massachusetts have given offenders a lighter sentence than the U.S. Sentencing Commission has recommended, a pattern that shadows other rulings nationwide.

The median decrease from the commission’s recommended minimum sentencing was 46.7 percent from Oct. 2010 to Sep. 2011 in substantial assistance departure cases, according to U.S. Sentencing Commission data.

Recent child pornography cases in Massachusetts are evidence of such statistics.

In January, Judge Patti B. Saris sentenced a Dedham man to 21 months in prison for possessing child pornography – 42 months less than the punishment issued in the commission guidelines, according to The Boston Globe.

Two years prior, Judge Michael A. Ponsor sentenced a Springfield man to four years of probation and community confinement for possessing child pornography, according to a U.S. Attorney press release. The minimum suggested punishment is six to eight years in prison, according to The Globe.

But a judge in Pennsylvania recently sentenced a tenth-grade teacher who possessed and distributed child pornography to 19 years and seven months in prison, a punishment within the commission’s guidelines and just five months less than the maximum penalty.

The debate arises amidst recent child pornography cases in the Boston area – former elementary teacher David Ettlinger, 34, from Brighton, faces charges of possession of child pornography and now for assault.

Last Thursday, a 54-year-old management company employee was arraigned and charged with possessing child pornography after his employers found material on his work computer.

Although the commission establishes guidelines of punishment for federal crimes, Supreme Court rulings have declared that judges do not have to follow the commission’s suggestions when sentencing offenders.

The commission holds a public hearing on child pornography crimes today in D.C. The hearing will include discussions on technology, sex offender treatment and perspectives from the law, victims and courts.

Jetta Bernier, the executive director of Massachusetts Citizens for Children, said people are trying to research if people who view child pornography go on to molest children, or if pornography deters people from actually going out and risking being caught with a child.

However, she said that just by viewing the material, people are creating a market for that material and kids somewhere are being sexually abused.

One of the fundamental problems of child porn is that children are being sexually exploited in order to produce the material, she said.

“We need to work to prevent child sexual abuse from happening in the first place,” Bernier said.

Some local laws, she said, have expelled offenders from communities, which means such offenders have no place to live.

“We find them clustering in trailer parks, for example, because it’s cheap to live there and because trailer parks tend to be out of the way,” Bernier said. “When you have that happen you have a concentration of those who are sexual offenders and that can be really high risk area for any child to live or visit in.”

Bernier said people need to listen to the judges and understand why they are not following the guidelines.

“I think at this point we have to really listen to what these judges are saying,” Bernier said, “and to allow the legal system essentially to make an informed decision about what the right penalty should be.”
http://dailyfreepress.com/2012/02/15/child-pornographers-in-mass-not-penalized-enough-study-shows/

Lawmakers send stern message to sentencing panel on child-porn cases
02/15/2012
By Milton J. Valencia

Even before a long-awaited hearing on federal child porn sentences began today, members of Congress had made their intentions clear: keep the rigid sentences.

The heads of the House and Senate judiciary committees and the subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security wrote US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris a letter urging that the US Sentencing Commission abide by the public’s will in handing out harsh sentences to defendants convicted of child pornography.

The letter arrived just before the Sentencing Commission – which Saris, a judge from federal court in Boston, chairs – began debating the sentencing guidelines for child pornography, and the dignitaries called out Saris for her history of straying from guidelines.

The guidelines have come under increased scrutiny over the past decade as Congress has enacted tougher penalties for anyone convicted of possessing of child pornography. In some cases, a defendant convicted of a first-time offense could be sentenced to 17 years in prison under the guidelines.

But federal judges are increasingly resisting the guidelines, which are only advisory. Many judges, including some locally, argue that the guidelines are often skewed by added penalties and fail to match a defendant’s culpability.

US Representative Lam Smith, US Senator Charles E. Grassley, and US Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. co-signed the letter to Saris urging the commission to embrace tougher penalties, citing the heinous nature of child pornography.

They also said they were disappointed to read in a Globe article Sunday that Saris herself had issued a sentence recently that fell far below sentencing guidelines, and that the judge said she found problems with the guidelines.

The letter, however, does not state that in another case, Saris handed out a 13-year sentence for a defendant convicted of child pornography
http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrodesk/2012/02/lawmakers-send-stern-message-sentencing-panel-child-porn-cases/Jv0yr4TpMGC7QmcbAKkh9L/index.html