My son is being charged with child porn.

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Hi, I am new to the group. My girlfriend actually found it doing some research. We have a situation that we can't seem to get anyone to help us with. My son is being indicted on charges of child porn and sending explicit material over the internet. This is a long story, so bare with me.

My son, mentally is probably age 13 or 14, and all this happened about 4 years ago, but they just pressed charges against him this past November. Since that time, he has been on house arrest and has done everything they have asked him to do. We live in NC, and the girl in question lives in Montana.

They met playing online games, and soon after started talking to each other. At the time, the girl told my son that she was 17 going on 18. He at the time would have been probably 19 or 20. Well they did what people that age do, and they started sending naked photos back and forth to each other. They both will tell you, they were in a relationship. Even when I would tell my son, they weren't in a relationship, he will argue me down about it. Anyway, they did what they did, and eventually my son found out about her age, and by that time it was too late. Well the girls dad, figures out what has happened, but this is like a year later, and he calls the police. The FBI came to my sons home, he and him mom live together, and they confiscated his phone and ipod. They told my sons mom, that they could look at him and tell they he had issues, and that they would probably never hear back from them. The State of NC decided not to press charges against him. Well, the state of Montana, waited about another year, pressed charges against him, and appointed him a court appointed lawyer, then, then, they served papers on him. They had appointed him a lawyer, and he had no idea he was even being charged. How does that work? So this is where we are today. The court appointed lawyer that he had was from Montana. She had been his lawyer since day one, and she only called him maybe, 10 times from September to May. She talked him into signing a plea agreement, never telling him the terms of that agreement. Well when I found out, I was livid, and the day before he was supposed to be in court, is the only day, that she has even met my son. She met with him for like a total of 10 minutes. She never explained to him anything. He had no idea what he was walking into. He was just so nervous and scared, he thought that was what he had to do. I told her, he wasnt signing this deal, and that we were wanting to take the deal off the table. OH MAN, she got so mad, and talked to me and my family like we were nothing, and like we beneath her. Well I filed a complaint against her, and the Montana State Board took her off the case. He was appointed another Lawyer, who called 3 days ago, and has never even spoken to my son before this day, and told him, the best thing to do was take the plea deal!! ! I told my son, we are not signing this deal. How can they ask him to sign a plea deal, and they have never even talked to him. They have no clue who they are representing!! How is that fair representation of a client?? I have looked for help every where, and this is how I came to this forum..

Well during all this time my son had the first lawyer, I have done a lot of research, and I have came to the conclusion that my son, and lots of kids like him, are all going through this same deal. Only my son, has never been diagnosed with anything. I had no idea about Aspergers until all this happened. I do know that my son has a lot of issues. Well my insurance sucks, and the people who my son needs to see my son and make that evaluation are to expensive for my family. I will say this, I almost forgot. My son was evaluated by Dr.Joseph Plaud. A leading sex crime expert that tried to determine if people would be repeat offenders. If you look him up, you will see, that he is one of the best. He states in his report over and over again, that my son is not a sex offender and would never be a threat to society. He did however say, that my son has a lot of issues, anxiety, depression and lack of thrive, and that he also has a strained relationship with his dad, yes me.. This is true, and it does hurt, but its because I never had a clue as to what my sons issues were. I always was very strict and hard on him. I can look back now, and get very upset with myself, because of the way I treated my son. Its not something I am proud of, but I am here and I am fighting as hard as I can fight for him, only to keep being knocked down. I have tried everything, and I mean everything, from writing our governor, to Dr. Phil. Things you would have never told me, I would be doing. Its all really frustrating, because we dont have the money, or the voice to make people see that my son is not who they say he is. He just needs help, and the minute he signs this agreement, all that goes out the window.

I guess what I am doing, is asking for help here. Can someone point me in a direction to get my son the help he needs? Can someone show us what to do? I can not allow my son to live with a title that I know he isnt for the rest of his life, because someone isnt willing to listen to us. Please if you know what we can do, by all means, please share it with us..

Im sure that I have missed some things because there is so much, so if you are confused by this, please ask me anything, I am willing to let it all out.. Thanks for your time, and God bless..

The only thing I can think-of, off the top of my head, is going to your clergyman (I would think they would have all kinds of resources / know people [psychiatrists, lawyers who could, maybe, help you pro bono]).

Also, you could try Legal Aid----they help low-income families for free (or, reduced rates), as well.

http://www.legalaidnc.org/Pages/Homepage.aspx

I sure hope this works-out for you----my prayers are with you.....

Why don't you see what kind of charges you can file for harassment, slander, and sexually abusing a disabled person? It gives you leverage, and you can drop them if the other side drops their charges.

When I first saw the title, I was thinking "damn right, child porn is illegal so he is guilty" and then I read the post and saw he was deceived by a minor and that can happen to anyone. I would suggest getting a lawyer in your own area (if you can afford it) since the ones you are getting are not very competent. It sucks your son had to be deceived. I wish there were laws to protect adults against minors like this.

Also it sometimes it takes people a bunch of times to write to Dr. Phil until they get a response. I am sure they get so many emails they can't do everyone on the show.

I have called lawyer after lawyer and each one wants between 50 to 75 thousand dollars to take the case. I cant afford that, and the way its looking, I have run out of options. My son loses, if I can fight, and right now, I am about fought out. I dont know who to turn too anymore. I am mentally drained. I dont condone what my son did by any means, and if I thought he was capable of doing this as a repetitive thing, I would not even think twice about letting him suffer the consequences, but I know this is not who my son is. Even the probation officer that is over him, says that they have to be mistaken. He is so scared and timid that he would never hurt anyone.

I am just afraid that if I cant figure something out, he will kill himself. He has already tried one time because of this mess. Its just so frustrating not being able to do anything.

I don't know what to tell you. He's in the clutches of "the system" at this point and there's really not much you can do since you have no control over what "the system" does. Realize that the lawyers, being court appointed, are under heavy strain, they are probably like most other public defenders: underfunded and over-worked. They will argue for a plea deal from day one just to alleviate their case load.

That said, realize that going to trial is never a slam dunk, certainly not in this case, and that's because it's not about the "truth" it's about convincing 12 random people off the street that you're innocent. Add in that "child porn" is the charge and the 12 jurors will prejudge your son before the trial has even started-- even though they are instructed not to, human nature will rule, and they will prejudge before any evidence is presented. These are all things the defense lawyers have to weigh when giving a recommendation. Let's put it this way, your lawyer doesn't care about whether your son is innocent or not, he/she cares if the case is winnable-- if it's not, they're going to recommend a plea deal to at least minimize the punishment. This may actually be your best option, because if you lose the punishment will be more severe than the plea deal. Realize that the prosecutor is going to have a real hard-on for this case: putting away a pedophile is a great notch for his/her next campaign. Again, doesn't matter whether your son is or isn't a pedophile, that's the way he/she is going to portray it and a prosecutor isn't just a lawyer, he/she is also a politician (most prosecutors are elected) looking for political capital.

If I were your lawyer, tbh, I'd recommend you take the plea deal just because all the external factors that shouldn't have anything to do with the case at hand are against you-- and unfortunately those external factors will have as large a role or larger role than the evidence itself in the outcome.

All that said, one very pertinent question you need to bring up with your lawyer is jurisdiction. Does the state of Montana even have the right to prosecute a crime that for all intensive purposes happened in another state. If anything, since the internet was used and state lines were crossed I would think this would be under federal jurisdiction and not state jurisdiction due to the interstate commerce clause. I haven't studied law in over 10 years, and know a lot has changed especially with internet policing, but it's certainly something I would ask my lawyer about, especially since the Feds didn't seem too interested in pursuing it. Of course there's always the risk that the Feds do have jurisdiction and now that they have the case they have a new found interest in prosecuting it.

Anyhow, best of luck in this situation.

edit: typo.

The reason the lawyers are so expensive is sexting with a person under 18 is a felony, right off the bat. It also a federal crime. You have the bonus round of it not being in the same state. The law views your son is no different if he was a 45 year old NT Snap Chatting with a 16 year old in Florida and he is in Michigan.There will be no cheap attorneys as handling these cases burn up boat loads of time, and lawyers make their money on hours worked.

In my state doesn't care how mentally young you are, only that you are mentally competent. That is you can tell the difference between an orange and an apple.

Doeesn't matter that he is autistic, unless he is so low functioning that he has no clue. It sounds like he doesn't have an official diagnosis, so all the past history is sort of irrelevant in the court of law. To tell you the truth, it wouldn't matter even if he was diagnosed at age 6.

I have know 2 men who were in their 20s who were busted by the police doing a sting operation, and one were the girl's parents pressed charges. (all three are on the spectrum) It is a real up hill battle. Under 18 means underage when it comes to sexually explicit images. There is no wiggle room there. You have to be over 18 to give informed consent to have or "use" your sexually explict likeness (I have friends who work in the adult entertainment industry).

I'm guessing the plea was no prison time, but he has to register as a sex offender. Or he pleads guilty and registers for a while on the sex offenders list. Then he won't be on the list, but will still have the felony conviction.

It blows chunks all around.

Montana is probably going for blood because there isn't a whole of federal crime going on there, and this makes the prosecutors look good with a conviction.

One thing the parent's of the man with the girl who pressed charges did was become his total legal guardian. This way he avoided jail time, the felony charge and being a registered sex offender. He could not own a computer or any tech devices. The other two guys did jury trials and lost.

I really feel bad for you. Sexting is a huge issue. I had to sign a form for my DD to go to a talk about it in 5th grade. I went to the class. The officers had pictures of underage girls/boys dressed to look much older. I guessed the 14 year old boy and girl. 15 and 17 was almost impossible to say underage or not. They talked about state and federal laws, and what to do if someone sends you a picture that shows things that should be covered by a bathing suit.

Curious, what was the plea deal?

I wish I could give you better advice.

I work closely with some people in the NYC Courts. Maybe not relevant to Montana.

It would be instructive if we knew the plea deal. Does it involve some kind of situation where "if he stays out of trouble for a set period of time, his record will be sealed/expunged?"

You are doing the right thing by refusing to sign any of the papers that those criminal-lawyers give you. The United States Pop-Culture is over-obsessed with insisting that everybody is either a terrorist or a pedophile.

Papers are contracts, and sometimes you have to turn around and counter-sue them instead, before they get the message that you are not to be messed with, but few people know enough about the Legal-System to be able to win against their rigged criminal-system.

The people who RUN the courts are CRIMINALS. You CANNOT give them an inch or trust them with anything. The Judges threaten you with Contempt of Court for even attempting to utter the word Constitution (even though they're supposed to have an Oath of Office to uphold it which makes them TREASONOUS Criminals), and Death-Penalties are associated with Contempt-of-Court Charges, but fear not.

You need to learn about the rules of Admiralty Law so that you can defend against its attacks. Just like in martial arts, you learn how to attack, then you can recognise that a particular move or technique IS an attack, and thus be better-prepared to deflect said attack. The court-room systems unlawfully and illegally proceed with Adjudication before even Establishing any Status or Subject-Matter Jurisdiction.

Your first line of defense is to NEVER sign THEIR papers. Your second line of defense is to make them sign YOUR Contract-Papers (that YOU can make by the way). From what I can tell, they have committed multiple crimes already, from Conspiracy to Deprive Your Son of his Human Rights, Attempts at Extortion, Attempts at Libel and Slander, various Business-Violations that Forbid Telemarketers and Debt-Collectors from Contacting you Repeatedly (Harassment), Operating Under Colour of Law (this means that they are a CORPORATION and ACTING like they are a GOVERNMENT), Entrapment, Additional On-Going Attempts at More Entrapment, etc., etc., I am sure I could come up with a lot more if I spent enough time on exposing more of their Criminalities.

Anyway, you are dealing with Criminal For-Profit Corporations, and ALL "laws" are CONTRACT-Laws...

Yikes! I hope that the lot of you can get all of this straightened out.

the encouraging thing is the sex crimes expert saying he's not likely to re-offend. you should put that front and center in all your dealings with lawyers, dr. phil, and whomever.