Tax protester faces kiddie-porn charges

Philadelphia Daily News ^ | Thu, Jun. 17, 2004 | Jim Smith

[Lurking Libertarian]

Tax protester faces kiddie-porn charges

A Montgomery County man who has publicly dared the Internal Revenue Service to arrest him for not paying federal income taxes was charged yesterday in federal court in Philadelphia with possession of child pornography.

IRS agents seized 10 computers from the Hollywood home of Larken Rose more than a year ago, but have yet to charge the tax protester with any tax crimes.

The child pornography was "inadvertently discovered" by an IRS agent who was examining one of the computer's hard drives, an FBI agent alleged.

FBI agent Beatrice A. DeFazio said the computer images contained explicit sexual situations involving underage girls.

The agent said there is "probable cause" to believe that Rose downloaded the kiddie porn from the Internet because the pictures were stored in the same computer file "where partially nude images of his wife" were also stored."

Neither Rose nor his wife could be reached last night.

[Navy Patriot]

All the cops have to do is email you kiddie porn, then they can break into your house, confiscate your computer, and arrest you when they find the evidence.

Sorry, no tinfoil hat award. You will have to accept the "realm of possibility" citation in leiu.

They actually tried this with Patty Hearst. Cops sent a UPS package containing drugs to her husband, UPS left it on porch, cops were waiting in ambush to raid and arrest figuring she would pick it up and take it inside. Plan collapsed when she didn't and called Sheriff's office. They caught the cops hiding in wait in their cars. Their explanation of probable cause for the raid was fishy, and it didn't take long to figure out who had arranged for the package to be delivered. No charges were ever filed.

[AppyPappy]

Most likely an protected ZIP file which is why it took them so long to crack it. He was hiding his porn in password protected ZIP file. Foolish man.

[AppyPappy]

The password protected ZIP file would have been bypassed in the search until they cracked the password. Remember, this clown was using his computers to sell fraudulent tax schemes so the computers were fair game.

[NJ_gent]

"This is currently happening to a friend. They don't play fair. Cut the guy the benefit of the doubt. They destroy people, sometimes."

Ditto. A guy I know is in a similar situation. His wife was using the computer and apparently some sort of underage site popped up. She immediately jumped on him and called the police. He was removed from the home that night, and now only gets to see his kids under supervised visits. She's divorcing him, and he's lost almost everything, including his business. He's never been charged with any crime, yet he's lost almost his entire life. That being said, the guy's still in good spirits. I doubt I'd be able to handle his situation as well as he has. That, and the fact that he's not afraid to talk about what happened. He knows he got screwed over bigtime, and anyone who knows the guy knows it too. What a shame. I'm all for protecting children from predators, but there are far too many times where people go way, way overboard under the guise of 'protecting the children'.

[JoJo Gunn]

Whenever the IRS is involved, I am instantly and without fail suspect of them.

Too many decent and honest people have killed themselves over the IRS and it's Gestapo tactics.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Moral of the story: don't commit crimes.

If you say so.

[Feiny]

That was my first thought, too. How convenient for them to find this on his computer which was in their possession. How can we be sure the IRS didn't download it?

[NJ_gent]

"In other words, if the Feds want to get something on you all they have to do is get a search warrant for anything, and evidence of any other crimes they stumble across is admissable."

That depends on a lot of things - not the least of which is the skill of your lawyer. If the police come to your door with a search warrant for evidence of a murder and run into your pot stash, then yes, it's probably admissable. So long as the police were acting in 'good faith', meaning they were working within the law and doing what they've been told to do by the judge, evidence of other crimes is generally admissable. Where they run into a problem is when they have a search warrant for a shotgun and they start tearing through your wife's jewelry boxes. They can find oodles of cocaine, but they can't do anything with it. The warrant covered a search for a shotgun. Unless you have a jewelry box large enough to stuff a shotgun inside, they have no business searching them.

[Lurking Libertarian]

How convenient for them to find this on his computer which was in their possession. How can we be sure the IRS didn't download it?

As pointed out in post #56, computer forensics experts should be able to tell if this was planted.

If he doesn't plead guilty, this should all come out in the trial. We should all keep an open mind.

[MississippiMan]

First, I certainly have NO sympathy for someone messing with KP. None.

I also have no trust of the IRS.

With that said, since they seized the computers, it naturally follows that this was done via a warrant. And the warrant most likely specified what they could search for, such as tax or financial records, common file formats that contain such records, etc. They had no authority to search for the KP, hence the claim of inadvertently discovering the KP. If they truly discovered it by accident, it's probably admissible. If they struck out on tax issues and decided to see if they could find something else, probably not.

If the guy is innocent, he should hire a top-notch computer forensic examiner post-haste. If the images were planted, unless the planter was way sharp, the examiner can probably prove it.

MM, CCE (Certified Computer Examiner)

[Feiny]

My brother emailed me a naked photo of my nephew once.
He was around 4 and wanted to "dress himself" to go out.
When he came downstairs, he was carrying a football & wearing his cowboy hat & boots....nothing else. He looked so darn cute. That photo will be shown to him when he's older for lots of laughs. I'd post it here, but don't want to get FR in trouble for kiddie porn....

[Feiny]

Yeah, I responded before I read the whole thread...my mistake.

[-YYZ-]

"As pointed out in post #56, computer forensics experts should be able to tell if this was planted."

Creating files on your computer and then a trail to make them look as though they've been there for years would be the work of but minutes for any skilled computer expert. I could probably do a pretty convincing job of it. Someone who's really into PC stuff could definitely do it.

[-YYZ-]

ps Although I also detest kiddie pron as much as anyone, the mere existence of such pictures on a computer's hard drive should not be enough for a conviction, IMO. Additional evidence, for example a proven history of accessing sites containing such, or transmission of them to others, or membership in a site devoted to them should be required.

[ColdSteelTalon]

The USENET news groups when you download a picture file from there you have no idea what you are getting till its on your hard drive.

Once I thought I was downloading a pic of a mountain scene and it was a pic to a porn site about wives doing the neighbors.

[NJ_gent]

"I guess that the police couldn't use that to prove kiddy porn addiction, it must already be well documented."

Proof of addiction isn't necessary for conviction. That you have the files in your possession is all that's necessary to send you away for several years. The funny (not clown funny, but odd) thing is that it doesn't really matter who downloaded the images, or whether they were downloaded intentionally. Your husband would likely be the one they eyed for prosecution, doubly so if his name is on the Internet Service Provider account. Eventually, the law might actually catch up to the technology and reality. Until that time, you're in good shape and us menfolk are up the creek without a paddle. :-)

[50 Cal]

This one stinks like week old fish. After all only someone who is souless and evil would work for the IRS in the first place.

[NJ_gent]

"For this "plan" to work, wouldn't you have to download the file and then not say, "Holy crap, this e-mail that I downloaded from a stranger is kiddie porn!" and then fail to delete the kiddie porn?"

Information isn't deleted on your computer when you hit the 'del' key. The information sits there for quite a long time. In fact, it's often sitting there for years. Even using a file shredder doesn't guarantee your safety from prying eyes. Lab techniques can theoretically restore data that's been overwritten up to about 40 times. If I recall correctly, this is done either by looking at residual charges, or by pitting on the drive platter - I don't remember which it was.

[VRWC_minion]

If someone is alone with your computer, it would take less than 5 minutes to create and password protect a directory and unload dozens of kiddie porn images on it.

But your files keep all sorts of corrobrating data like dates and sequences of data. Some files keep track of internet sites you access. It wouldn't be hard to verify when these were downloaded. In addition, the ISP has records also to cross reference. The time delay may be due to such investigations and to answer legal questions.