Jul
1
On Tuesday Night’s Raising The Bar Episode
Filed Under Opinion
Two nights ago, I was watching an episode of Raising the Bar (TNT) and the main case was very interesting. Kellerman was defending a guy who posted a slightly nude picture of his infant son coming out of the tub to his social networking page on the Internet. The picture was taken from the site and posted on a child pornography website, using the same caption and offering more pictures like it (of other boys) for $14.99. A detective found the picture on the porn site, searched for the source of the picture and found the father’s page where the picture was originally posted. The detective proceeded to arrest the father for possessing and distributing child pornography.
One side of this case says that the father, upon posting the picture to his public site, virtually gave it to child pornography distributors. The prosecutor offered three years of probation, parent classes, and sex offender registry as a deal to the defense attorney Kellerman. Kellerman refused this deal, claiming that the father was not a child pornographer.
On the other side of this case, the father says that he was posting an honest to goodness picture of his son that had no sexual factor to it whatsoever. He made no contact with the website that stole his picture, and he did not literally “give” it to them. He states the picture was for family and friends only and that the people that should be arrested are the child pornographers.
I agree with the defense on this case. It seems ridiculous to me that if a father puts a picture of his son on his own personal site on the Internet and someone else takes it and uses it for a different intent, the father deserves to get in trouble for it. Yes, he’s the source of the picture, but is it all about the source or is it about the first time it is used for negative intent? If I’m a gun salesman and I legally sell someone a gun and the guy I sell the gun to kills someone, do you arrest me or him? The father’s ex-wife says he was a terrible husband, but despite all her criticisms, she honestly felt that he was a good father. The father has never been arrested before and has had no run-ins with the criminal justice system. Perhaps the father should privatize his social networking page, but registering as a sex offender and taking parenting classes? The guy knows how to be a good father and what he did does not come off as pedophilia in my opinion. Also, the sex offender tag ruins him for life and offenses like these are not what the registry is for.
For the record (spoiler!), the jury was hung and it ended in a mistrial. Kellerman tried to talk the DA out of retrying the case, but was unsuccessful.
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This episode was super-controversial.. and i’m undecided. I loved that they bring up this subject especially in this day and age. Was great that Bochco made a whole drama out of it. Especially the courtroom trial with the mother testifying and having to look at the slides. Also unnerving for the jury members! Nice show!!!
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