OR- 'Sexting' in Newport: Dumb prank or child porn?

3-27-2009 Oregon:

NEWPORT -- To some, it might seem like a dumb teenage prank. To others, it's child pornography worthy of criminal prosecution.

Either way, a 17-year-old Oregon girl faces years in prison after using her cell phone at a drunken party in Newport last year to record, for a minute or less, a 16-year-old girl involved in crude sexual activity.

The case is an Oregon example of "sexting" -- a rapidly growing trend in which teens share revealing images of themselves or others via cell phone. Across the U.S., teens who've sent or received such images have found themselves charged with crimes such as distribution or possession of child pornography.

Critics say sex-crime laws were never meant to apply to teenage girls sending naughty photos of themselves to boyfriends, for example. But others say it's not that clear-cut, especially in the Oregon case.

"This is a relatively new activity and is not a matter of settled law," said Bill Albert, spokesman for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy in Washington, D.C. "A lot of law enforcement agencies are scratching their heads and saying, 'What should we do? What is our role to play?' If you do a quick Google search for sexting, you will come up with dozens of criminal cases."

In a survey his group conducted last December, one-fifth of teens and one-third of adults ages 20 to 26 admitted sending or posting nude or partly nude images of themselves. And because people lie to pollsters, he said, he figures the real number is higher.

Why would teens do such a thing? "Three-quarters of them described it as a fun and flirtatious activity," Albert said. "What is clear in Technicolor is that what is considered public behavior and what is private is a very blurry line for a lot of young people these days."

By all accounts, the Newport incident was more egregious than most.

At least one adult and a crowd of teens, including a girl who is now 17, gathered at a vacation rental home last April for a night of partying. The Oregonian is not identifying the girl because she is a juvenile.

According to the account in court documents, the girl, 16 at the time, told police that everyone was drinking. She was in a bedroom with another girl, a 16-year-old friend, who was drunk and partly naked. A man in the room, 30-year-old David Michael Guy Simpson, encouraged his dog to have oral contact with the friend.

"I thought this was funny so I recorded it on my cell phone," the girl told Newport police Detective Ken Real, according to the documents.

A few days later, the girl showed the clip, which lasted from 45 seconds to one minute, to Jesse Duane Carey, then 18. He, in turn, sent it to his own cell phone, the documents say.

Authorities wouldn't say whether Carey shared the video or how police found out about it. But in February, warrants were issued for the arrests of the girl who shot the video and for Simpson and Carey. Now the girl and Simpson have been charged with Measure 11 crimes that carry mandatory sentences of years in prison. If convicted, they could also be required to register as sex offenders.

The girl, arrested March 3 and released to an aunt and uncle March 11, faces one count of sexual abuse and one count of using a child in a display of sexually explicit conduct -- felonies that respectively carry mandatory minimum sentences of 75 to 70 months (about six years) in prison. She also is charged with two counts of encouraging sexual abuse, another felony.

Simpson, arrested Feb. 17 and still in the Lincoln County Jail, faces two counts of sex abuse and one count of using a child in a sexual display. Carey, arrested and released in February, has been charged with three counts of encouraging child sex abuse.

Unsettled home life

The girl's life hasn't been easy, said Colleen Ritz, who took the teen into her home after her daughter befriended the girl and said she had nowhere to live. The girl "was on her way to Portland to live with her dad's ex-girlfriend because she said she wasn't going to live with her dad," Ritz said. "We told her, 'Just come stay with us.' She's had a bad rap in life."

A teen who was at the party also defended the girl. The teen, whose mother asked that she not be identified, said 20 to 30 teens had gathered just wanting to have fun. She said the girl would not have recorded the goings-on to be mean.

"She's not that kind of person," the teen said. "I think she thought, 'This is funny; we're drunk. Look at what she is doing.' They used to be good friends."

Paul Ferder, Simpson's attorney, said the charges in this case are probably excessive. The attorney for the girl was on vacation and could not be reached, and Carey's attorney did not return a phone call.

Monday court date

The girl and Simpson are due in court Monday for an early-resolution conference with their attorneys and Lincoln County Circuit Judge Charles Littlehales.

"Normally, that's the time to tell the court whether you need a trial or if it's been resolved," said Mike Flinn, Benton County deputy district attorney, who's prosecuting the case because Carey is the son of a Lincoln County sheriff's deputy. "We could negotiate lesser charges, but I can't say if that's going to happen."

Littlehales this month did reduce bail for the girl from $350,000 to $50,000, and for Simpson from $350,000 to $150,000.

"If you have a person who has not committed extreme criminal violence but is still subject to Measure 11, shouldn't the court have discretion?" he said in an interview last week. "There are a lot of young people doing things, and they don't recognize the seriousness of what charges can and will be brought. It's kind of frightening that, one, they do it and, two, the consequences it may bring."

He also expressed concern for the girl's predicament. "It would be life-changing if she gets the minimum. ... That's pretty severe for a 17-year-old."

Albert, the spokesman in Washington, D.C., also cited the girl's age as cause for ambivalence.

"Should a 16-year-old face time in jail and be labeled a sex offender when it is minor to minor? That's a very tough call," he said. "I think we all feel quite differently when an adult is involved."

But John Shehan, spokesman for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., said this case isn't sexting, it's child pornography.

"These are crime-scene photographs, certainly," he said. "Not only is it pornography of children but possible bestiality. If these images are leaked to the masses, they will be forever memorialized and traded. There are individuals who collect these, and they become highly coveted. It has a lifetime of repercussions." ..News Source.. by Lori Tobias, The Oregonian