MI- Chills, no charges, over naked teen pics; sex offender requests report - with video

12-29-2008 Michigan:

There will be no charges filed against the 19 Pinckney Community Schools students who possessed or transmitted cell phone pictures or videos of a naked 14-year-old female student in October.


Although possessing and distributing the images is illegal, Livingston County Prosecutor David Morse said Monday that suspensions issued by the school district and parental discipline were sufficient punishment for the incident. He said he didn't believe any purpose would be served by putting the teens on the state sex offender registry for 25 years.

"We felt the school took appropriate actions by imposing suspensions," he explained. "Most of the parents in this case dealt with it appropriately. We didn't feel it was necessary for us to file any criminal charges. We didn't have any expectations there would be greater lessons learned by filing criminal charges and hanging sex-related convictions around some 14-year-olds' necks."

To illustrate the danger of the teens' behavior, Morse said his office received a Freedom of Information Act request from a 53-year-old convicted sex offender in a New York prison, who wanted a copy of the police report identifying the students and the images. By law, Morse has to respond to the request and said he will heavily redact the report so as not to release personal information or the images.

"I have repeatedly said that the danger in this sort of behavior is that predators are lurking on the Internet in hopes of finding information they can act upon," he said during a morning press conference. "It just takes one angry or jealous kid who receives sexually explicit pictures to post them on the Internet with names, addresses and phone numbers. Just the sort of information a predator would welcome."

The prisoner, Anthony Brandon, was convicted March 21, 1996, in Orange County, N.Y., for second-degree sexual abuse against a 13-year-old female — a conviction that landed him on the state's sex offender registry, according to the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Web site. He also was sentenced in December 2006 to 20 years to life in prison for first-degree sexual conduct, according to the New York Department of Correctional Services.

He also has a 1985 conviction for third-degree sodomy and rape, according to New York records.

Police said a 14-year-old Pinckney girl thought she was "clowning around" when she took 20 naked photographs of herself and two 30-second videos during the summer, which she sent to two male friends.

The images, with her face visible, then became a "hot topic" when school started after students learned about their existence and began asking to have them forwarded to their cell phones.

School officials learned of the photographs when someone left a copy of them and an anonymous note identifying the girl on an assistant principal's desk. A subsequent police investigation found the photograph was shared with more than 200 people.

"It was reported that the photos had been sent to several hundred other students," Morse said. "Detectives were unable to confirm that information, and with limited resources, were unable to mount the comprehensive investigation necessary to make that determination."

It is not believed the images made it to the Internet, he said.

Nineteen students were eventually disciplined — ranging from in-school suspensions to out-of-school suspensions — for violating the district's cell phone policy.

About two weeks later, a similar incident came to light at Fowlerville Junior High School when it was learned a 14-year-old student had transmitted a cell picture of her naked breasts to a couple of friends during the summer. As in the Pinckney incident, the photograph was shared when school started.

Fowlerville police were able to identify eight students who "admitted" to having or sharing the photograph. However, how far the photograph went past that was not known, police said, noting that the pictures had all been deleted before they could talk to the students.

Morse also declined to issue charges in the Fowlerville case, saying he believed the action school officials took was appropriate.

Similar stories of teens sharing sexual photographs of themselves with classmates have subsequently surfaced in Ingham, Washtenaw and Genesee counties, but no additional incidents have been reported in Livingston County.

"I'm hoping it was just kind of a fad thing and kids being kids, being impulsive (or) they thought it was a clever thing to do," Morse said. "I'm hopeful that by seeing that there are consequences both in school ... and I hope by the (Brandon) illustration, there are dangers. It's not a kid prank; it might be to them, but there are a lot of people out there who view it as an opportunity to prey upon kids."

Morse said his decision in these two cases, however, does not mean he won't file charges in any future similar cases. ..News Source.. by Lisa Roose-Church