Need Advice To Go Through This Horror

[Jennifer Waak]

Sadly, I know someone who last Friday that was just convicted of this -- somewhat different because he downloaded some files off the internet that was child porn but never looked at them (I know this guy -- he's not making it up). The Feds raided his house 2 years ago (busted in at 6am), he went to court and was convicted last week, and is now being held until 12/3 for sentencing. The Feds are cracking down really hard on this right now. Congress has deemed it a "violent crime" and it will be handled by a federal court.

Definitely, find a lawyer. They told this person that they are prosecuting particularly hard now "trying to make examples" of people.

[Andre Noble]

Hugo, everything's going to be O.K.

Boy, by getting married and having children in American society, a man acquires a HUGE amount of potential legal and financial liability - to say nothing of just more people in his life who will be dumbfounded with his hobby as a large format photographer.

After reading of your predicament Hugo, I am more convinced than ever that that $7,000 dollar 8x10 Ebony I lust after, and life long bachelor-hood are starting to look good to me. I feel for you.

Hugo, if indeed everything you did was on the up and up, God willing, the D.A will drop the case like a hot potatoe. Don't panic by throwing a wad of cash at some shark lawyer. Sit tight. If you have child porno on your computer or around house, disregard last sentence, seek lawyer. But of course, you don't so don't worry. You are a good person.

P.S., I love being an American, but we are not as "free" as we spout. An 19 member organized platoon of foreign nationals can execute a complex military operation simultaneously at 4 seperate venues in the continental U.S. They murder 5,000 people.

Yet, our law enforcement priority prefers nabbing "booty snappers" (AKA bored parents who want to do photographically to their children was was done to them). Go figure. Are we the fast-fading Roman Empire?

Hugo, PLEASE don't panic. Your kids will be back with you soon. Andre

[Brian Ellis]

I strongly suspect that there's more to this story than Hugo is telling us. While employees of photo labs routinely contact the police whenever nude pictures of chilren appear in their labs, in the similar situations with which I'm familiar a couple innocent snapshots of one's children in a bathtub for the family album have caused no problem at all once the investigators see that nothing more was going on. I'm not so naive as to think that beaureacrats don't abuse their power but Hugo is telling us that his children have been removed from his custody, he's been evicted from his house, and he can't see his children (not to mention the search and seizure), all because of a couple innocent snapshots of his young kids in the bathtub. I really don't think so but Hugo, I'm a lawyer and if this is in fact all that's going on - i.e. if there were only a couple pictures, they were completely innocent, the children are your children, you don't have any child pornogrpahy sitting around, this kind of thing has never happened to you before, etc. etc., not only do you have nothing to fear from a criminal standpoint but you also have a potentially lucrative civil lawsuit against the governmental agencies involved.

[william nagel]

I agree something smells fishy here. How did you post this message without your PC? Police usually show up with a warrant not pictures. Pictures are evidence and there whereabouts must be documented (OJ simpson case). If they had pictures and the district attorney felt there was enough for a case they would just arrest you and confiscate all of your computers (home and work) and let your lawyer worry about it. I agree with the previous post, we're not getting the whole story. But then again if this is true, which I find hard to believe, then get the best lawyer you can afford.