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azeroth

Junior Member
I live in Arizona. I am living a nightmare that my family cant wake up front. 3 years ago when my son was barely 17 years old he met someone in a chat room on line who downloaded a zip file to him so he could see girls his own aqe. This zip file started a file share server which is a blind server, you dont know who is putting what on it or taking what off of it. My son had the server on for 3 days and in that period someone had downloaded 6 pictures of childporn. My son deleted the pictures, closed the server and didnt think anything about it. A year later the police show up and ask me about it, they made it sound like they were looking for who had posted the pictures on line and asked if we would mind helping them. I was more than happy to help and told my son to tell them everything that had happened. We thought they were looking for email addresses but actually they could of cared less who had downloaded the pictures They searched my sons computer and found no pictures or anything else but they still confiscated it and a couple of cds that had nothing on them. They said it was just procedure, boy was I wrong. Even thought there were no pictures or anything just because he said it was his server they charged him with 6 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.
For those of you not familiar with arizona law, that is a mandatory minimum 60 years to a possible of 144 years in prision with no chance of parole, no probation, and cant be commuted by the govenor. You will die in prison.
We hired a private attorney just in case they followed through on the charges and nearly a year later they did, the attorney received a summons and my son and I went to court on the date. The attorney we hired didn't show up and when my son's case was called and we stood up to approach the bench some guy we had never seen before said he was there to represent my son. The attorney was completely clueless about the case, didnt know that there were no actual victims or anything else. The judge set a $60,000 bail, electronic monitoring and immediately arrested my son on the spot. I managed to convince the judge that there were no actual victims because she wasnt going to let my son even come home after I posted bail and I managed to get the bail reduced to $30,000.

I know this is a long post but I think the history is important on my sons case and I will get to the questions I have here in bit.

We fired the attorney we had but it pretty much cleaned us out financially so we had to switch to a public defender. He started out alright and seem to do the right things, he had my son take 2 polygraph tests which he passed with flying colors and a full phycological exam which the doctor said he was as close to a 0 threat as you can get.
You have to understand my son is probably one of the sweetest and honest kids you could ever meet. After all of this and spending 8 months on electronic monitoring the prosecuting attorney offered my son a plea deal. 5-15 years in prison, life time probation, and register as a sex offender.

As you can guess he didn't find this plea even remotely fair, my son was willing to pay for his mistake but registering as a sex offender makes you sub-human in todays society.

Ok, here comes some questions although at this point it probably won't matter, my son skipped bail because his wonderful attorney told him that if he went to trial that he was risking life in prison and that he probably couldn't win because of his statement to the police saying the computer was his.

The six pictures that they are charging my son with were not in my sons possession, they were mailed to the Chandler police dept from a Det. in NY state. When you read the report they make it sound like these pictures from 2 cd's were taken from son which they weren't. They submitted these 2 cd's to the grand jury in order to get an indictment.
Is there a way to get these thrown out for mis-leading a grand jury?

The next question is my son's attorney filed a motion to determine voluntariness of my son's statement to the police because I told my son to cooperate and talk to them and really didn't give him a chance not to talk to the police. The problem is when we went to the hearing the prosecutor didn't have any of his crap in order so they didn't argue the motion. And as of this date it stilled hasn't been argued or ruled on. Is there any way
to make the court hear this arguement and rule on it even though my son isn't present.

The next question is since my son skipped bond we have been getting harrased by the police and the bail bond company. The police came beating on my door at 02:30 in the morning when my wife was alone and I was at work. This is great because we have two serial killers running around phoenix and nothing makes a woman feel safer than having someone beat on your door in the middle of the night. Secondly the bond company put wanted posters all the way around our block and at my wifes work, and probably at mine as well although I didn't see them. These posters had my sons picture and our home address on them as well as the charges he's facing. Is this legal? How would they justify it if someone came to my home and mistook my younger son who looks alot like his brother and hurt him.

I apologize again for the length of this post but any kind of advice would be so greatly appreciated. My son doesnt deserve what they are doing to him and neither does my family. Thanx
 


Just tear the posters down. Thats really the only thing you can do about that. You might want to get your money back from the attourney that never even showed up for court. He clearly didn't do his job so why should he keep the money? you should probably ask your public defender about this. Skipping bail just made things worse. Now he is facing another charge on top of the previous one and there's no way of getting out of it. He's going to get caught eventually. Only other option is him getting out of country.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Hopkins306 said:
Just tear the posters down. Thats really the only thing you can do about that. You might want to get your money back from the attourney that never even showed up for court. He clearly didn't do his job so why should he keep the money? you should probably ask your public defender about this. Skipping bail just made things worse. Now he is facing another charge on top of the previous one and there's no way of getting out of it. He's going to get caught eventually. Only other option is him getting out of country.
Bull. they can't tear the posters down. That would be violating the law. As for the attorney -- if they fired the attorney before the court hearing then they are the ones who screwed up because the attorney didn't have to show up. OP if you listen to this guy you will have more problems.
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
azeroth said:
I live in Arizona. I am living a nightmare that my family cant wake up front. 3 years ago when my son was barely 17 years old he met someone in a chat room on line who downloaded a zip file to him so he could see girls his own aqe.

Ummm... naked girls/partially dress girls under the age of 18 are also/can also be illegal! That doesn't excuse him.

This zip file started a file share server which is a blind server, you dont know who is putting what on it or taking what off of it. My son had the server on for 3 days and in that period someone had downloaded 6 pictures of childporn.

How did he know about the blind server? He apparently did if he deleted it after three days. Hence he had a responsibility to what was put on the blind server.

My son deleted the pictures, closed the server and didnt think anything about it. A year later the police show up and ask me about it, they made it sound like they were looking for who had posted the pictures on line and asked if we would mind helping them. I was more than happy to help and told my son to tell them everything that had happened.

That was your error. You should have contacted an attorney first thing before volunteering to allow the police inside.

We thought they were looking for email addresses but actually they could of cared less who had downloaded the pictures They searched my sons computer and found no pictures or anything else but they still confiscated it and a couple of cds that had nothing on them. They said it was just procedure, boy was I wrong. Even thought there were no pictures or anything just because he said it was his server they charged him with 6 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Actually it is procedure. Even though things are deleted, the information is still available to computer professionals to extract. Deleting them means nothing. Since he said it was his server he is responsible when he knows such server is used to distribute child pornography. He should have contacted an attorney and the police immediately upon receiving the six photos.

For those of you not familiar with arizona law, that is a mandatory minimum 60 years to a possible of 144 years in prision with no chance of parole, no probation, and cant be commuted by the govenor. You will die in prison.

And those who take advantage of children deserve such a punishment.

We hired a private attorney just in case they followed through on the charges and nearly a year later they did, the attorney received a summons and my son and I went to court on the date. The attorney we hired didn't show up and when my son's case was called and we stood up to approach the bench some guy we had never seen before said he was there to represent my son. The attorney was completely clueless about the case, didnt know that there were no actual victims or anything else. The judge set a $60,000 bail, electronic monitoring and immediately arrested my son on the spot. I managed to convince the judge that there were no actual victims because she wasnt going to let my son even come home after I posted bail and I managed to get the bail reduced to $30,000.

the attorney who did show up -- was he there on behalf of the attorney you hired? If so that is not a problem. If continuances are not allowed then attorneys find someone to substitute for them if they cannot make it. What type of hearing was it? An arraignment? Can you guarantee for sure that there would have been a different outcome if the other attorney had been there?

I know this is a long post but I think the history is important on my sons case and I will get to the questions I have here in bit.

We fired the attorney we had but it pretty much cleaned us out financially so we had to switch to a public defender. He started out alright and seem to do the right things, he had my son take 2 polygraph tests which he passed with flying colors and a full phycological exam which the doctor said he was as close to a 0 threat as you can get.

Polygraphs are NOT admissible in court. There are ways of beating the tests.

You have to understand my son is probably one of the sweetest and honest kids you could ever meet.

No we don't have to understand that.

After all of this and spending 8 months on electronic monitoring the prosecuting attorney offered my son a plea deal. 5-15 years in prison, life time probation, and register as a sex offender.

Have you seen the evidence against him? if they have a great case, that would not have been a bad offer at all.


As you can guess he didn't find this plea even remotely fair, my son was willing to pay for his mistake but registering as a sex offender makes you sub-human in todays society.

Actually no he wasn't. What he did classifies him as a sex offender. Pure and simple.

Ok, here comes some questions although at this point it probably won't matter, my son skipped bail because his wonderful attorney told him that if he went to trial that he was risking life in prison and that he probably couldn't win because of his statement to the police saying the computer was his.


Now here is where the major problem is -- you are excusing everything your son has done by blaming someone else. An attorney HAS to tell him what he is risking. Your son screwed up -- he skipped bail. There is now a warrant for his arrest. Since his crimes involve children, he is considered a danger. QWake up and quit blaming everyone else and painting your son as a saint. You call him sweet and honest and he isn't. Skipping bail does not make him sweet. receiving pictures of child porn and doing nothing about it does not make him a hero or wonderful. He is an alleged felon who is allegedly a danger to children. He ran. And rather than facing up to that you want to make excuses.

The six pictures that they are charging my son with were not in my sons possession, they were mailed to the Chandler police dept from a Det. in NY state. When you read the report they make it sound like these pictures from 2 cd's were taken from son which they weren't. They submitted these 2 cd's to the grand jury in order to get an indictment.
Is there a way to get these thrown out for mis-leading a grand jury?

maybe maybe not. Were these CDs downloaded from your son's server? if so then your son is responsible and they are evidence against him. Did he send those CDs to the person in NY State? It looks like your son is not as innocent as you wish to believe. He was caught in a sting and apparently they have him hook, line and sinker.

The next question is my son's attorney filed a motion to determine voluntariness of my son's statement to the police because I told my son to cooperate and talk to them and really didn't give him a chance not to talk to the police. The problem is when we went to the hearing the prosecutor didn't have any of his crap in order so they didn't argue the motion. And as of this date it stilled hasn't been argued or ruled on. Is there any way
to make the court hear this arguement and rule on it even though my son isn't present.

Nope. Your son not being present has pretty much ruined everything at this point. They won't hear any of this until your son is tracked down, arrested and thrown in jail. Oh and his running makes him look guilty as sin. Expect a few more charges added as well for which he is guilty and will be imprisoned for.

The next question is since my son skipped bond we have been getting harrased by the police and the bail bond company. The police came beating on my door at 02:30 in the morning when my wife was alone and I was at work. This is great because we have two serial killers running around phoenix and nothing makes a woman feel safer than having someone beat on your door in the middle of the night.


the police are not harrassing you. They are looking for a fugitive at the fugitive's last known address. They have a right to stake out your house and anywhere else that the fugitive may be found. They can knock on your door at any hour of the day or night if they think he may be there.


Secondly the bond company put wanted posters all the way around our block and at my wifes work, and probably at mine as well although I didn't see them. These posters had my sons picture and our home address on them as well as the charges he's facing. Is this legal? How would they justify it if someone came to my home and mistook my younger son who looks alot like his brother and hurt him.


Yes that is legal. They can justify it because it is a picture of your son who is alleged to have committed crimes against children and his last known address. All of those are facts. There is also a warrant for his arrest for jumping bail. it is not your home address per se but the address of your fugitive son.
I apologize again for the length of this post but any kind of advice would be so greatly appreciated. My son doesnt deserve what they are doing to him and neither does my family. Thanx
Your son is responsible for everything that is happening. And you bear a lot of the responsibility as well. You participated in this. You are making excuses for him. He is a fugitive. If he would have stayed and fought he had a chance. Now he doesn't. And no amount of money is going to save him indefinitely. You have problems. Your son has problems. And if the police tie you or your family into helping your son skip bail expect to go to jail with him.
 
This should be an example to everyone that you shouldn't answer police questions when they might be trying to implicate you in a crime. no matter how innocent you think you are you shoudn't answer questions, let them arrest you if thats what they're going to do and don't say a damn thing untill you get a lawyer.
 

xylene

Senior Member
Reality Check

6 child porn pictures on a blind server is no biggie.

That's not a joke or an attempt to excuse web porn.

Webmasters do not go to jail for 144 years for that.

You don't get 60 years for a firewall breach that gives you a pornado.

That happens at work.

If internet users called the police everytime a worm or trojan horse directed you to REALLY SICK PORN (seeming child porn.) there would be no police availible for any other duty.

MSN Hotmail's web master should be doing the next 5 to 50,000 for child porn charges if just having material resident on servers was enoungh to make a criminal case.

------------

I think with all that said, you need to face reality.

Police do not do an interstate porn investigation out of the blue.

And they don't do it because of porno spam.

------------

Could this be the dateline factor of overreaction?

Maybe.

Your son's running looks MAD terrible.
 

CdwJava

Senior Member
azeroth said:
The next question is since my son skipped bond we have been getting harrased by the police and the bail bond company.
So ... who posted the collateral for the bond? Who stands to lose their house or other property as a result of his flight?

- Carl
 

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