Posted on 12/31/2005 12:15:29 PM PST by demsux
A former San Diego police officer convicted of making and possessing child pornography was placed on five years' probation yesterday and ordered to stop operating an Internet-safety Web site.
Brett Kenneth Hensley pleaded guilty in June to one felony count of using a minor in the making of child pornography and three misdemeanor counts of possessing child pornography.
Hensley, a 12-year veteran who resigned in June 2004, surrendered in court Jan. 18. A search warrant had been executed nearly a year earlier at his Sabre Springs home by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and San Diego police. Soon after he was taken into custody, he posted bond and was released.
During a San Diego Superior Court hearing yesterday, Judge Charles Rogers told Hensley he could be sent to jail for a year if he violates the terms of probation. Rogers ordered him to complete 30 days of public service. Hensley also will have to register as a sex offender for life.
Deputy District Attorney Geoff Allard argued unsuccessfully that Hensley should do some jail time – up to 240 days – for his crimes. A forensic review of Hensley's home and work computers revealed numerous images of child pornography and e-mail messages indicating he was communicating with female minors, according to court documents.
The agents also discovered that Hensley solicited phone sex with a teenage girl who lives out of state and requested that she e-mail him sexually explicit photos of herself. The girl believed she was communicating with a 16-year-old boy, the prosecutor said.
"Words really don't do justice to the defendant's crime. It's all really about the pictures," Allard told the judge.
Defense attorney Gerald Blank said in court that Hensley entered therapy soon after the search warrant was served and moved out of the house he shared with his wife and children.
"This is a gentleman who immediately responded to the problem," Blank said, adding that his client committed the crimes "in the darkest and most difficult days of his life."
Blank said the problem started when Hensley began downloading adult porn on the Internet at a time when he was having trouble in his marriage. Hensley never distributed child porn or tried to meet any minors in person, the attorney said.
Judge Rogers called the downloaded images "shocking," "disgusting" and "degrading," but said he believed the defendant was remorseful. The judge noted a report by an evaluator who said she didn't believe Hensley was a pedophile.
However, the judge ordered the defendant to stop operating a Web site – www.safersurfers.org – through which he offered tips to parents on ways to protect their children from Internet predators. Rogers gave Hensley 90 days to sell or transfer ownership of the site.
Pedophile cop gets probation.
More sexual deviancy in Sabre Springs.
He can be remorseful in the joint. The judge is a loon.
A horrible example of the "law enforcement" double standard.
What are we not being told here....why the Immigration and Customs agencies?...is this scum an immigrant from Yourup?
Probation for a Kiddie Porn felony?? seems a bit strange
****"This is a gentleman who immediately responded to the problem," ****
Defense Attorney Blank called this pedophile kiddie porn maker a Gentleman?? Now that is some crap.
unbelievable
I believe this guy was caught up in "Operation Candyman" or "Operation Hamlet"...regardless, the arrests started in Europe and eventually caught US citizens...
Including two others in the Poway area.
Those two got lengthy sentances, but this guy gets probation...police protecting police.
later pingout.
Yechh.
The "BADGE" confers instant infallibility, which remains active for life.
Even when the Cop is a crook, or worse.
Locally (reno, NV), we had a former Floriduh cop here who murdered at least two local women, and another in Utah.
His name was David Middleton.
Stories like these are pretty common, yet too many Americans have no problem with granting L.E., current and former, an assortment of special privileges not available to the common citizen!
So what happened to "We hold these truths to be self evident........."
I posted this awhile back...did you see it?
Obviously not. Nobody will ever look because there is a lot they don't want made public. Ever wonder why some LE retired before they could be put on the stand and charged with perjury?
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