Dynamics of a Spotsylvania County Child Pornography Case 

Child pornography is a serious crime with severe consequences for those who are convicted. A conviction can lead to status as a sex offender and a stigma that will follow you, and impact your professional and personal life. The dynamics of a Spotsylvania child pornography case can be complicated to decipher alone, which is why you should get in touch with a skilled defense attorney. A lawyer can look at the facts of your case, and attempt to build a solid defense for you.

Investigating Child Pornography Allegations

One of the dynamics of a Spotsylvania child pornography case to consider is that most child pornography is online or computer-based. Meaning, there are a lot of situations where phones, computers, internet presence, and activity, is monitored. That information is then used to prove the charges of access, viewing, possessing, distributing, or soliciting child pornography.

What that means is that it is usually a more complex investigation. One of those things results in usually some type of computer monitoring or computer-searching. This can come in the form of a warrant, sting acts of the online chatrooms, and monitoring and potentially finding downloads from certain sites that are being watched by law enforcement officers. The investigation into it makes it a little bit different.

Child Pornography Penalties

The dynamics of a Spotsylvania child pornography case can greatly influence the outcome. The penalties for child pornography depend on what specific act a person is charged with. If they are charged with possessing child pornography, it can be up to 5 years actually in prison for just a simple first offense and up to 10 years in prison for a second offense. If a person is distributing it, it is going to be much more—up to 20 years with a mandatory minimum of 5 years.

Each of these is for each charge. Child pornography is interesting because every image counts as a different charge or can be used a separate count. Just by clicking around a child pornography website and having those images downloaded to a person’s computer, they could be facing 10 years to life in prison depending on how many images can be attributed to him or her. Each image can be charged a separate count with those same mandatory minimums in the same range.

Plea Agreements

Child pornography charges are taken quite seriously and have more at stake than most charges. However, these cases often result in some type of plea agreement simply because a person ends up with so many counts for their child pornography charge, that they end up facing something similar to life in prison.

Often, it does not make sense to go to trial with all that at stake, and so these often result in some type of plea agreement for much less time and much reduction of counts in order to avoid the significant prison sentence.

Being Charged in Spotsylvania Despite Being Out-of-State

One of the more interesting aspects of a Spotsylvania child pornography case is that an individual could be charged with child pornography in Spotsylvania even if they are in another state with child pornography depending on the location of certain acts.

A person charged with production of child pornography could be charged in Spotsylvania, even if the pornographic images were not produced there. That person could be charged in Spotsylvania because they bought the equipment used to produce it there, or because they financed it while being in Spotsylvania

If the person bought a camera in Spotsylvania that was potentially used someplace else, that could potentially be charged as under the pornography statute in Spotsylvania due to the fact that the act of buying a camera in order to use it for the purposes of child pornography took place within the jurisdiction of Spotsylvania.

How Do Child Pornography Charges Differ if the Defendant is a Minor?

If a person is also a minor and the individual that is taking pictures is a minor, they are still going to be charged with potential child pornography.

There are situations all the time where prosecutors will charge individuals who are in high school or in middle school who are sexting, sending consensual naked pictures to each other with this charge. Unfortunately, it is taken seriously and it is still going to be charged with a felony crime.

Value of an Attorney

A defense lawyer can help limit your exposure to police, limit the number of questions that are answered, and help mitigate the answers that were given in order to defend against future potential charges. If you face child pornography charges or, if you have any questions about the dynamics of a Spotsylvania child pornography case, speak to a compassionate and experienced attorney who can work with you.