Child porn conviction ends man’s dream of becoming a police officer

Auburn Citizen ^

[FloridaSunrise]

AUBURN — A former Cayuga County resident’s dream job of becoming a police officer was dashed Tuesday when he was sentenced in Cayuga County Court to shock probation for possessing child pornography. Robert Benson, 25, of 462 Countess Drive, West Henrietta, admitted on Aug. 10 that he downloaded 14 images of child pornography to his personal computer. Cayuga County District Attorney Jon Budelmann said Benson disclosed during a job interview with the Syracuse Police Department that he had viewed child pornography. Police subsequently searched Benson’s house and charged him with possessing a sexual performance by a child, a felony, Budelmann said. Dale Yates, Benson’s lawyer, said the conviction cost Benson his fiancee, his dream job and his reputation.

[LifeChoice]

Sounds like a CYA case. The dept isn’t willing to take any chances on the hypersensitive anti-porn folks making this pimple look like a festering cancer.

They can cry Zero Tolerance all they want but this is weak.

[altair]

Of course Now I have a tight spam filter an do not open any strange messages ever

It doesn't matter. It still landed somewhere you had access to. It doesn't have to be your own computer. Actually, it's worse if it lands in an internet email account - they have so many customers it doesn't hurt them in the slightest to hang someone out to dry.

I've been a network email administrator amongst other related things for almost three decades. What kind of experience do you have with this sort of thing?

Question: If someone walks by your house/apartment, stuffs your mailbox with child porn, then arranges to have someone call the police asking them (in not so many words) to look at your mailbox, are you guilty?

"Tight spam filters" aren't. "Tight controls" aren't. Not when it comes to email. Who cares whether you "opened" the message or not? Possession is 9/10s of the law. The imap protocol is a nice convenience, but it has extinguished any traditional concept of possession.

I have over 30 years experience with electronic mail mostly as a developer (the faceless programmer who has to write the code to make the stuff work) and I also work for the company that routes most of the internet packets in the world. What's yours?

[Straight Vermonter]

Imagine, if they’d never asked him this question...he became a cop...and spent forty years in the “profession”. He would have continued his hobby for that entire period.

It happened here in VT. A police office was found to have been using materials seized in investigations to supplement his porn habit.

[Spike Knotts]

“I’ve been a network email administrator amongst other related things for almost three decades.”

As a child I dreamed of the possibility of one day becoming a Network Email Administrator. Do you have any idea how much I could expect to make as a relatively inexperienced Network Email Administrator? In American dollars, of course, although I’m not averse to the possibility of travel to remote and exotic locations in the execution of my duties as a Network Email Administrator. Have laptop, will travel, as they say.

Thank you for any help you can provide. I look forward to joining your ranks.

[FloridaSunrise]

You have a point. At one time whitehouse.com was a hard core porn site. Many people confused it with whitehouse.org, and they accidentally got downloaded porn.

There is a difference between hardcore porn, which is perfectly legal, and kiddie porn where it will get a prison sentence.

[FloridaSunrise]

Shock probation is when the judge gives you about 60 or so days in prison, then releases you on probation assuming you have behaved properly.

[vladimir998]

Thanks for the info.

[Drew68]

There is a difference between hardcore porn, which is perfectly legal, and kiddie porn where it will get a prison sentence.

We'd like to think so but that's not always the case.

Melissa Ashley (wikipedia link SFW)

"Despite stating on camera an age of 18 in some videos, Ashley first appeared in adult movies in 1998-1999 when she was aged 20. She has been mistaken for a minor and in several cases where her images were mistaken for child pornography has either successfully testified for the defense or given evidence leading to those charges being dropped.

People have been charged with having possession of child porn when the model in question was actually an adult. In these cases, the charges were dropped or acquitted only because the actress herself took time out of her life to show up at the trials of the accused and testify for the defense.

These are cases that actually went to trial. Are there others where the accused was given an offer he couldn't refuse in exchange for a guilty plea? Other cases featuring young-looking adult actresses whose real identities couldn't be discerned and/or couldn't be located to testify? Who knows.

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not defending child porn. But seeing people get charged when no crime was ever committed troubles me, --as it should trouble those who fight against the real and legitimate crime of child pornography.

[CodeToad]

He can always run for Congress.

[Emmett McCarthy]

That was my thought as well. I’m glad he was dumb enough to admit it. He might even have been too dumb to be a cop, which is a feat in itself.

[FloridaSunrise]

That’s the issue here though. Is it really a hobby if he only has 14 of those pictures on his PC? A real pedophile would make a “hobby” of it and have hundreds if not thousands of those photos on his PC.

Who knows why he kept the 14 pictures of kiddie porn on his computer and why he volunteered the information to the Police Dept. My guess is that he thought it was no big deal and that he wasn’t really into that perversion .

[jmacusa]

“Only fourteen images’’. Good God, do mean to say that’s nothing? How many is enough? One image of a child being abused is enough. Child pornography is a crime scene photograph.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Typically when they are busted, the number of pictures can run into the thousands. Because the law is so strict, in past several of them literally kept a loaded gun next to their computer, so if the police raided them, they could kill themselves. And they did.

My point is that this case is very, very different from the typical, and that there is a lot of information missing. This doesn’t mean that what he did wasn’t serious, just that it is very atypical.

[Drew68]

My guess is that he thought it was no big deal and that he wasn’t really into that perversion .

I think some of the people who've been busted downloading this stuff aren't necessarily perverts, they just let curiosity get the best of them.

Here's a scary scenario:

Teenage Boy #1: "Hey wanna see something really gross on the internet?"
Teenage Boy #2: "Sure."

Teenage boy #1 downloads some child porn pictures from Limewire onto teenage boy #2's computer.

Teenage Boy #2: "That's messed up! That's sick!"

Teenage boy #1 downloads a few more pics. Both boys agree that what they're looking at is pretty disgusting and wrong. Curiosity sated, they leave the computer and return to Playstation.

A couple months later...

Teenage Boy #2: "Dad. The computer is messed up. Can you take it to Best Buy and have them fix it?"
Dad: "Sure. I'll drop it off tomorrow on my way to work."

The next day dad drops off a computer that contains, unbeknownst to him, several illegal images of child pornography downloaded by a friend of his son's.

The following morning, the police pay dad a visit and dad leaves in handcuffs while the neighbors stand outside and watch.

Dad tells the police, "I don't know how that stuff got there." The police reply, "Yeah, that's what they all say."

And because the pics were downloaded from a file-sharing website (Limewire) dad gets charged with possession and distribution as well. Dad is in big trouble.