The Child Protection eNewsletter

U.S. Supreme Court reviews child porn law… 

The Bush administration urged the Supreme Court to uphold a law against the promotion of child pornography, rejecting First Amendment claims that it limits legitimate creative expression.  Read More  Opponents of the provision of the 2003 federal law that sets a five-year mandatory prison term for promoting child porn have said that movies that depict adolescent sex could fall under the law.

But Solicitor General Paul Clement, the administration's top Supreme Court lawyer, said the law is not meant to cover movies like "Lolita," "Traffic," "American Beauty" or "Titanic."

Several U.S. Supreme Court justices expressed doubt that a law barring child pornography could be applied to such popular movies.  Read More  The justices appeared to support the pandering provision of a 2003 federal law that makes it a crime to promote, distribute or solicit material in a way intended to cause others to believe it contains child pornography.

“If you’re taking a movie like ‘Traffic’ or ‘American Beauty’, which is not child pornography, and you’re simply truthfully promoting it, you have nothing to worry about with this statute,” Clement told the justices.

“Traffic” has a scene with the high-school daughter of the nation’s drug czar appearing to have sex with a drug dealer; “Lolita” portrayed a middle-aged man’s obsession with a young girl; “Titanic” depicted a love affair by a young couple on a doomed ship; and “American Beauty” involved a 42-year-old man’s attraction to his daughter’s best friend.

Chief Justice John Roberts asked the attorney who is challenging the law about the government’s distinction between legitimate films and illegal child pornography.

Lawyer Richard Diaz is representing a Florida man, Michael Williams, who was arrested in 2004 after he traded messages in an Internet chat room with an undercover federal agent posing as a woman.

Williams offered to trade photos of children with the agent and then posted seven images of minors in sexually explicit conduct.  At issue before the Supreme Court is his conviction for promoting child pornography

“Your client ... didn’t produce Lolita,” Roberts said to Diaz.  Roberts expressed concern that Williams could argue the law might be applied too broadly in hypothetical cases like “Lolita.”

Justice Stephen Breyer cited the movies “American Beauty” and “Traffic” and noted Clement’s position.  “I don’t see under his interpretation how anyone could conceivably be prosecuted,” Breyer said.

Diaz argued the law punished “thought, beliefs, expressions and opinions.”  He said someone could be convicted if they cited one of the films like Lolita and said it contained “hot graphic teen sex.”

Justice David Souter seemed skeptical of that argument.  “Most 17-year-olds are, in fact, going to realize the real thing is not going on in, you know, the Lolita movie,” he said.

The Supreme Court in 2002 struck down an earlier version of the law that included computer-generated images that appeared to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Congress then adopted new legislation in 2003, which President George W. Bush signed into law, in an effort to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania suspended for covering up sex abuse…

In a surprise move, the Episcopal Church USA has suspended Bishop Charles E. Bennison Jr., head of the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania, on charges that he concealed his brother's sexual abuse of a minor girl more than 30 years ago.  Read More

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, the denomination's leader, informed Bennison that he was formally "inhibited" and was to "cease all episcopal, ministerial and canonical acts" as of 11:59 p.m. Saturday.

Schori's deadline for Bennison's departure will allow him to chair the annual diocesan convention, which begins tomorrow morning at the diocesan cathedral in West Philadelphia.

The 10-member diocesan standing committee will immediately assume all the duties of bishop until a special Court for the Trial of a Bishop hears the charges against Bennison some time next year.  That court will decide if he may resume his diocesan duties or should be removed permanently.

Bennison, 63, has been diocesan bishop for 11 years in the diocese, which has 80,000 members in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery Counties.  A leading church liberal and scholar who supports gay clergy and gay marriage, he has been the target of conservative attacks almost since his arrival.

542 sex offenders among 6400 fugitives captured by law enforcement…  

More than 6,400 sex offenders, gang members and other fugitives were arrested in a series of law enforcement operations conducted throughout the United States, top Justice Department officials announced.  Read More

Led by the U.S. Marshals Service, teams of federal agents and local police over the past four months scoured 27 cities in 22 states to round up fugitives police described as some of the most dangerous.  Authorities said 542 sex offenders, 300 gang members and 73 murder suspects were among those captured.

The first of the raids took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in June, and the last of them ended in Philadelphia in September.  The coordinated effort marked the fourth installment of what the Marshals Service calls Operation FALCON, featuring cooperation between federal and local authorities.

"This cooperative effort has made our communities safer and promotes future cooperative efforts by law enforcement agencies at every level of government," Acting Deputy Attorney General Craig Morford said in a statement.  "Our actions have spared families, friends and entire communities the anguish of becoming victims at the hands of these repeat offenders," said Director John Clark of the U.S. Marshals Service.

In other news… 

A Coeur d’Alene, Idaho musician remained behind bars, charged with sexual abuse and enticing a child for allegedly acting inappropriately on an apparent foot fetish.  Read More

Nate Schierman, a successful local singer/songwriter who has sold over 20,000 albums according to his Myspace Page, was recently arrested when several young girls came forward claiming they had been solicited outside of their schools.  According to Court Documents, Schierman would drive by middle schools and high schools and tell girls he encountered that he was on a scavenger hunt, then ask them for their socks.  On some occasions, he allegedly paid the girls in exchange for the socks.

Vincent Roy Margera, who plays the MTV character "Don Vito" on "Viva La Bam" was found guilty on two of three felony counts of sex assault on a child and reacted violently when the verdict was announced.  Read More  Witnesses said Margera collapsed on the courtroom floor and started screaming when the verdict was read in a Jefferson County courtroom.  Witnesses said he yelled, "I can't go to prison for the rest of my life.  Just kill me," as he thrashed about on the floor.  "I didn't do anything."  Margera, 51, was accused of fondling three girls during a public appearance at the Colorado Mills Mall skate park last year.  He faced three felony charges after several girls said he grabbed their breasts or buttocks.  He was found not guilty on one count.  The two victims are 12 and 14.

Every lifestyle group has its own place in the virtual world "Second Life" -- including, apparently, pedophiles.  Read More

Britain's Sky News TV channel uncovered a virtual playground hidden away behind a strip mall in "Second Life" -- a playground where little girls who looked about 10 years old offered the Sky reporter's avatar, or virtual representative, a variety of sex acts.  • Click here to see the Sky News report.  (Warning:  video is disturbing!)  Sky reported the playground, called "Wonderland" in possible reference to an Internet child-porn ring broken up in 1998, to British authorities.  But Linden Lab, the San Francisco-based creator and operator of "Second Life," doesn't plan to take any action for now against the non-age-specific sex playground.

Child advocates are urging parents not to buy "Manhunt 2," a video game whose characters kill and torture using implements ranging from glass and shovels to a fuse box and a toilet.  Read More  The title went on sale Wednesday -- Halloween -- rated "mature," appropriate for people 17 and up, for about $28.  In the first-person killer fantasy, the players take on the role of a man escaping from an insane asylum.  "In my opinion, it's the most senselessly violent and offensive thing I've ever watched," said James Steyer, CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit group that advises parents about television, movies, Internet sites and videogames that may be inappropriate for children.  Steyer, who has not seen the version of the game being released this week, was talking about an unrated version that has been circulating free on the Internet since August.  That version contains more violence and sexually explicit content than the one being released commercially, including a scene where a man's testicles are mutilated with a pliers.  "It's disgusting," Steyer said.  "It's so violent, it struck me personally as pornographic violence."

Thai police may begin making background checks on foreign teachers after arresting two on pornography-related charges in less than two weeks, authorities said.  Read More  "It shouldn't be enough to wear white shirts and have a university degree.  We need to know their background," said police Colonel Apichart Suribunya, head of Thailand’s liaison office for Interpol, the international police agency.  Thai police arrested a British man and charged him with distributing hundreds of pornographic photographs of children on the Internet, police said.  Read More  His arrest came after Thai police arrested Christopher Paul Neil of Canada on October 19 on charges of having sex with several young Asian boys.  See  vol5_iss69  vol5_iss68  vol5_iss68.

Hundreds of California sex offenders who face tough new restrictions on where they can live are declaring themselves homeless -- truthfully or not -- and that's making it difficult for the state to track them.  Read More  Jessica's Law, approved by 70 percent of California voters a year ago, bars registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children gather.  That leaves few places where offenders can live legally.

Authorities were looking in several states for a 13-year-old boy and a 25-year-old middle school teacher, on the run after police began investigating a relationship between the pair.  Read More  Kelsey Peterson, a sixth-grade teacher and basketball coach at Lexington Middle School, was placed on administrative leave last week, and police issued a warrant for her arrest.  She is wanted on suspicion of child abuse, child endangerment and kidnapping, authorities said.  Police believed she was traveling with 13-year-old Fernando Rodriguez, and court documents showed authorities had recovered several e-mails and letters between the two from the school and Peterson's father.  In them, Rodriguez and Peterson professed their affection for one another.

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