There is no doubt this man is guilty of many things, but, what he was charged with and how the government convicted him of those charges needs to be reviewed. Blum was ultimately charged in federal court with violating 18 USC 2251(a) (a provision ofThe Adam Walsh Act).
First, the background facts, and notice, in particular, the highlighted portions and my comments:
Monroe man admits to child porn
Thursday, June 21, 2007 11:39:41 AM Central Time
By Kevin Murphy : Special to the Times
MADISON -- A Monroe man pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to videotaping himself sexually molesting two minor girls last year.
Gregory Blum, 51, admitted to District Judge John Shabaz that he had sexual contact with girls ages 3, 4 and 5 during the summer of 2006, that he videotaped some of the contact on July 29 and 30, and the girl in a DVD recovered from his house was probably the 3-year-old, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Meredith Duchemin.
-The Adam Walsh Act was signed into law on July 27, 2006
According to court documents, authorities learned that Blum, a former truck driver for Swift Transportation, had purchased memberships to Web sites featuring child pornography in May 2002 and a different child pornography Web site on an unspecified date. Authorities also received 12 tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Blum was the registered owner of two Web sites, where child pornography was located.
Acting on that information, a state investigator executed a search warrant on Oct. 23 on the Swift truck Blum drove while it was in Winnebago County. The investigator recovered a laptop computer. Blum was later charged in Winnebago County Circuit Court with 20 counts of possession of child pornography.
On Oct. 24, state agents searched Blum's Monroe home. They took a mini-DVD that contained "several snippets of sexually explicit conduct involving children," Duchemin said.
Blum soon confessed to the agents about the pornography, and he was indicted in federal court on two counts of manufacturing child pornography. He pleaded guilty to both counts Wednesday at a hearing that had just been set on Tuesday, an unusually short duration for federal court.
Blum's attorney, Chris Kelly, has sought dismissal of the charges arguing that the search of his client's home and laptop was based on information from the 2002 Web site membership purchase and was "too stale" to give police reasonable cause to conduct the search.
Also, that while the blank mini-DVD had traveled in interstate commerce, the child pornography on it never did and such "homegrown" pornography was not sufficient to give federal jurisdiction to the case.
-The BLANK DVD apparently was made in a state other than Wisconsin, but that was before any child porn was placed on the DVD. These are the facts that support federal jurisdiction and charges under 18 USC 2251(a).
Last week, Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker recommended that Blum's grounds for dismissal be dismissed. Shabaz has not ruled on Kelly's motion and would allow Blum to withdraw his guilty plea and go to trial if Shabaz finds that the search was unlawful.
Shabaz took Blum's conditional plea under advisement and set sentencing for Aug. 29, when Blum faces 15 to 60 years in prison.
Blum remains in custody.
Duchemin said she doubted Blum's plea in the federal case would affect pending Winnebago County charges, as they involve different child pornography. ..News Source (Google Cache).. by Kevin Murphy
The federal statute: 18 USC 2251(a)
(a) Any person who employs, uses, persuades, induces, entices, or coerces any minor to engage in, or who has a minor assist any other person to engage in, or who transports any minor in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with the intent that such minor engage in, any sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct, shall be punished as provided under subsection (e), if such person knows or has reason to know that such visual depiction will be transported in interstate or foreign commerce or mailed, if that visual depiction was produced using materials that have been mailed, shipped, or transported in interstate or foreign commerce by any means, including by computer, or if such visual depiction has actually been transported in interstate or foreign commerce or mailed.
Accordingly, because the BLANK mini-DVD was likely made in another state, although never proven, and mailed to or purchased by Blum, that gave the federal coourt jurisdiction to prosecute Blum.
Somehow, although technically such fits the wording of 2251(a), I think this is a overbroad interpretation of that portion of 2251(a). A more likely interpertation is, that materials purchased for mass production of such videos crossed state lines, is what Congress had in mind, not the construction used to charge Blum in this case.
For reasons that are a mystery to this writer, it seens this was not brought up on appeal, and the appeals court went off on a tangent of possession of child porn, see appellate court decision: USA -v- Gregory Blum . Something is very wrong with this appeal and hopefully it will be appealed higher at some future date.
However, that still does not answer why they tried so hard to get this case into federal courts rather than charge the man only in state court where they still have 20 counts of possesion of child pornography pending.
Now we get to why, a conviction in federal court will send Blum to the Bureau of Prisons for whatever his sentence may be. Also added by the Adam Walsh Act is a statute which calls for anyone in the custody of the Bureau of Prison to be evaluated for civil commitment at or near the end of the federal sentence, see:
Sec. 4248(a) Institution of Proceedings- In relation to a person who is in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons, or who has been committed to the custody of the Attorney General pursuant to section 4241(d), or against whom all criminal charges have been dismissed solely for reasons relating to the mental condition of the person, the Attorney General or any individual authorized by the Attorney General or the Director of the Bureau of Prisons may certify that the person is a sexually dangerous person, and transmit the certificate to the clerk of the court for the district in which the person is confined. The clerk shall send a copy of the certificate to the person, and to the attorney for the Government, and, if the person was committed pursuant to section 4241(d), to the clerk of the court that ordered the commitment. The court shall order a hearing to determine whether the person is a sexually dangerous person. A certificate filed under this subsection shall stay the release of the person pending completion of procedures contained in this section.
Now, is there any doubt that he will be civilly committed? That folks, is the reason why federal proceedings were sought. Oh yes, the 20 state counts of child porn, after conviction, will be used in his civil commitment proceeding.
Without Sec. 4248 of AWA, he would only be convicted of the state charges, and since it is Wisconsin which has civil commitment, possibly committed, but not guaranteed as under AWA.
Is this the fate of all child porn convictions? After all, it could be claimed the clothes the folks wore traveled in interstate commerce at one point and get a conviction in federal court. Just something to think about.
eAdvocate
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