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Sentencing Guidelines – Child Pornography

By: Derek Hawkins//July 20, 2015//

Sentencing Guidelines – Child Pornography

By: Derek Hawkins//July 20, 2015//

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Criminal

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Officials: POSNER, KANNE, and SYKES, Circuit Judges

Sentencing Guidelines – Child Pornography

14-2557 United States of America v. Jason Nicoson

Even though appellant did not directly engage in activity explicitly encompassed in 18 U.S.C. §2251(a), his conduct was consistent with the notion that he “sought out minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing the live type of visual depiction that gratified his sexual tastes.

“An abiding puzzle is why he was content to take still images of pornographic videos displayed on his computer screen; his webcam could take videos, which could have been transmitted to his computer and thus be available to him to watch whenever he wanted. But it’s enough that there is a basis for a reasonable inference that he solicited the live performance that he photographed with his webcam. He unquestionably sought child‐pornography videos from his chat‐room cronies, and that seeking could be expected to in‐ duce one or more of the cronies to arrange for a live performance and beam it to him, in which event he would be the principal in the solicitation of the performing girl, and the crony his agent. His possession of the recording (in the form of the still photos) of a live performance was evidence that he had sought “by notice or advertisement, a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.” It’s true that the government’s attempt to prove, from blurs in the still photos that the webcam took and transmit‐ ted to the defendant’s computer, that the computer screen was indeed exhibiting a live feed was weak. But it is difficult to see why he would have been taking still photos of a video that he had downloaded if it was not a live feed and there‐ fore a video that he could watch on his computer at any time. And it is undeniable from transcripts of his conversations in the chat rooms that he indeed sought minors to en‐ gage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing the live type of visual depiction that gratified his sexual tastes. That made him subject to the section 2G2.1 guideline regardless of whether his webcam recorded a live performance exhibited on his computer screen.”

Affirmed

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Attorney Derek A. Hawkins is the managing attorney at Hawkins Law Offices LLC, where he heads up the firm’s startup law practice. He specializes in business formation, corporate governance, intellectual property protection, private equity and venture capital funding and mergers & acquisitions. Check out the website at www.hawkins-lawoffices.com or contact them at 262-737-8825.

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