MA- Feds Send Letters Offering Kiddie Porn

4-25-2009 Massachusetts:

Team 5 Investigates Controversial Tactic to Stop Child Pornography

BOSTON -- Child pornography thrives from the brothels of South Asia to back rooms on the North Shore of Massachusetts.

A former high school sailing coach from Nantucket made yearly trips to Thailand where he set up a camera and recorded himself raping dozens of girls as young as 7.

In Gloucester, a mother used her cell phone to take pornographic pictures of her 8-year-old daughter before posting them online at her boyfriend's request.

These are the kind of people the United States Postal Inspection service set out to find when it became the first federal law enforcement agency to crack down on child pornographers.

But in almost a decade, Team 5 has learned the Boston office hasn't caught a single Massachusetts producer or distributor.

And some say the agency's good intentions have gone too far.

Team 5 Investigates has discovered the government is using the mail to target people and rack up convictions that, in the end, aren't getting to the root of the problem and aren't making kids much safer.

"It's like trying to clean up the ocean with a grain of sand at a time," said psychologist Dr. Carol Ball from New England Forensic Associates. "We need to go after the people who are producing this stuff."

John Kotsaftis is a 65-year-old grandfather who had no criminal record and no history of hurting anyone until he responded to a letter sent by a postal inspector.

"Do you think you were set up?" asked Team 5 reporter Sean Kelly. "Oh, definitely, "Kotsaftis said. "I'm fed up and I'm disgusted."

Kotsaftis' trouble began shortly after he bought a family nudist video from a Web site under investigation at the time. As part of that investigation, a postal inspector, posing as a child porn distributor, sent test letters to Kotsaftis as well as 200 others who did business with the site. The Postal Inspection Service wanted to see if anyone's interests would be peaked and if some people might purchase videos of children having sex.

"Some of those titles were off the wall and I was curious and I bought it and I admit it," Kotsaftis said. "Did you think what you were purchasing was exploiting children?" Kelly asked. "I didn't, no," said Kotsaftis.

But a judge did. He found Kotsaftis guilty of possessing child pornography.

"I think the government should be seeking out criminals but I don't think the government should be seeking to induce people to commit crimes," said Kotsaftis' attorney Robert Casey.

Kotsaftis is now required to register as a sex offender although he did not get any prison time or probation.

"Why go after a guy like that?" Kelly asked postal inspector Jay Stern. "What I need is just a reasonable suspicion that someone is doing something that indicates they have an interest in children of a sexual nature," Stern said. "That's all I need."

"Is your agency tricking people by doing this?" Kelly asked. "Absolutely not," said Stern. "The percentage of people who we investigate who will actually be prosecuted is very, very low."

Dr. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, said so is the percentage of people who actually hurt kids.

"Only about 18% of people who were initially investigated for child pornography suspicion actually turned out to have had a child molestation issue that the police could uncover," Finkelhor said.

"Why are you trying to catch people who don't have a history of hurting people?" Kelly asked Stern. He replied, "In many cases we don't know what we're going to encounter."

Some people who respond to these letters are serious threats to children. Sometimes investigators find significant stashes of kiddie porn inside their homes. At former day care worker John Blaisdell's house, postal inspectors found 25 of his notebooks detailing fantasies about raping and abusing underage girls.

"These are people, sadly, that see nothing wrong with the exploitation of children," said U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan.

But during the Bush administration, when prosecuting child pornography case was supposed to be a priority, Team 5 has learned 55% of the cases brought by the Postal Inspection Service were declined by the U.S. Attorney in Massachusetts. Those cases were pushed to the state level where the prison sentence is much less. And in some cases, like Kotsaftis, nothing at all.

"If this is such a big problem, why has your office declined so many of these cases?" Kelly asked. "Because we look and see whether or not the federal interest can be satisfied with a state prosecution," Sullivan said.

"What's the point if it goes to the state level and all they get his probation?" Kelly asked. "Well, hopefully through probably they're getting some level of treatment," Sullivan said.

"Is probation enough of a deterrent?" Kelly asked. "I would say in most instances not," Sullivan said.

But the Middlesex District Attorney thinks it is. In the past two years, Team 5 Investigates found that only two people in Middlesex County went to jail for possessing child porn. The rest got probation.

"Why not ask for the maximum?" Kelly asked Middlesex District Attorney Gerri Leone. "In not every case do we need to incarcerate or commit a defendant," Leone said.

Only half of the Postal Inspection cases in Massachusetts pushed to the state level resulted in prison time ranging from three months to five years. While at the federal level almost all cases resulted in prison time ranging from six months to 18 years.

Despite the failure to arrest actual pornographers and distributors in our area, Postal Inspectors will continue to lure people to buychild porn.

"Do you think you're making much of an impact?" Kelly asked postal inspector Stern. "I think we're making a huge impact," Stern said. "If I could save one child from being sexually molested then I've done my job."

"Going after these guys who have a few images of pornography, that's not going to stop the brutalization of children," Dr. Ball said.

The agency's tactics have led to better success nationwide. In the past year, they tell us almost 50 kids have been rescued from people trying to exploit them. ..News Source.. by WCVB TV