2 want Ball State students to pay $5 million
In Tacoma, Wash., in 2002, three very young boys – a 6-year-old and two 4-year-old twins – were removed from their home and placed in the care of Ronald and Wendy Young.
Licensed foster care providers, the couple turned their home into an even darker nightmare. In that home, the young boys were subjected to horrific and relentless sexual abuse that lasted for nearly two years, and was well-documented by Ronald Young in nearly 800 photographs he distributed to other like-minded pedophiles through the Internet.
Though he is serving 25 years in the Washington state prison system, the pictures live on, and in November they were found on the computer of Ball State University student Joseph Topp in his dorm room. And the 20-year-old Topp, an Angola native, shared the pictures as well.
In July, Topp pleaded guilty to a single charge of distribution of child pornography and faces more than five years in prison when he is sentenced in November.
He also faces a $5 million restitution claim from the anonymous Washington boys – now teenagers and living with their adoptive family.
Whether Topp will have to pay, or should have to pay, is a matter vexing courts around the country, even as the practice of filing restitution claims in child pornography cases is growing.
The case of Doyle Randall Paroline vs. U.S. is now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court – asking specifically what, if any, relationship between the defendant’s possession of child pornography and the victims’ harm must be established in order to claim restitution.
A few other such claims have been filed in the Hammond division of the Northern District of Indiana, and the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals has already weighed in, but Topp’s case is the first in the Fort Wayne division. ..continued.. by Rebecca S. Green
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