timmyjoe42 Wrote:
mugwump67 Wrote:
I was asked to help as an expert witness to a lawyer defending a child porn case a couple of years ago. The client was a slimy scumbag and was definitely guilty of soliciting and posessing the porn--I had no problem with that. I did have a serious issue with the prosecutor charging him with producing and distributing child porn because the perv copied his files to a zip drive.
How were you qualified to be an expert witness?
Zip drive, lol. He wouldn't have been able to access them anyway.
I don't see how the recipients can be charged, because there is no way to stop an unwanted text message.
The lawyer was looking for someone to help with understanding technical issues and a friend recommended me to him. Basically, he needed someone with technical knowledge to explain things like file systems and IRC to him and go to columbus to see what they found on the PC, how they pulled it off the hard drive, etc... He told me I might end up on the stand, but it wasn't likely.
Working with the lawyer probably would have been a good side gig, if I had played my cards right. Instead, I came back from Columbus and told him that I thought the defendant was provably guilty of everything except for the 'producing and distributing' charge (they still had the zip drive, but lost the disks). The lawyer probably could have accepted that, but I don't think he appreciated it when I told him that the def needed serious help and belonged in prison.
For my trouble, I received $850 for time and travel expenses. Prior to then, if someone said 'child porn' I always imagined dirty old men looking at pictures of naked teenage girls. It isn't and I'd gladly give the money back if I could have the images I saw burned out of my memory.