Accusations involving child pornography may lead to a humiliating arrest and severe criminal charges. Your entire reputation and future might be on the line. Act quickly and contact a defense lawyer about your case as soon as possible. Cases involving children tend to draw a lot of attention, and they must be handled delicately. An experienced lawyer can be your greatest resource.
Charges for the possession of child pornography vary based on the number of items allegedly in the defendant’s control. Child pornography is often stored and exchanged online or using file-sharing programs, and it is not unusual for defendants to face charges for hundreds or even thousands of images and videos. Evidence largely revolves around illicit images and videos. As such, the police will very likely search your home and computer. If they do so unlawfully, your attorney can work to exclude evidence that was seized in violation of your rights, which might undermine the case against you. Additionally, other defense options may be available, and you should talk about them with a lawyer right away.
Call (609) 616-4956 and ask our child pornography possession attorneys at the Law Offices of John J. Zarych for a free case evaluation.
Criminal Charges for Possession of Child Pornography in Atlantic City, NJ
Child pornography is highly illegal. Simply having it in your control is enough to warrant criminal charges. Many defendants face additional charges related to creating or distributing child pornography. Simply being in proximity to something like child pornography will likely draw attention from law enforcement, and the charges might be severe.
Possession
Simply having child pornography within your control is a serious criminal offense. According to N.J.S.A.§ § 2C:24-4(b)(5)(b)(i)-(iii), it is a crime to possess child pornography, which includes receiving, viewing, or having child pornography under your control through any means. The severity of the charges depends on the number of illicit items found by the police.
Possession charges generally include physical and digital items or materials. Each photo, video, or depiction of child pornography will be counted, and many cases involve a staggering number of illicit items and materials. You may be charged with a first-degree crime if there are 100,000 or more items in your possession. While this number seems impossibly high, it may be possible as thousands upon thousands of illicit images and videos exist online. You may face charges for a second-degree crime if you are believed to have at least 1,000 but less than 100,000 items. Finally, you might be charged with a third-degree crime for having child pornography in your possession, amounting to less than 1,000 items.
Child pornography is often created, traded, or distributed online, and many items are not physical but digital. Under N.J.S.A. § 2C:24-4(b)(5)(a)(iii), a person may be charged for the possession of child pornography if they knowingly maintain or store items depicting the sexual abuse or exploitation of a child using a file-sharing computer program. Talk to our child pornography possession lawyers about how evidence might have been seized from your home. If it was illegally seized, much evidence might be kept out of your trial.
Possession with the Intent to Distribute
In some cases, the police believe that the suspect not only had possession of child pornography but also had the intent to distribute it to others. In such a case, the suspect may be charged with possession with the intent to distribute under § 2C:24-4(b)(5)(a).
This offense includes knowingly distributing items depicting children being sexually abused or exploited, knowingly possessing child pornography with the intent to distribute it, and knowingly maintaining or storing items of child pornography using a file-sharing computer program. Often, the police find probable cause to support charges for the intent to distribute through the totality of the circumstances. There is often not one single factor that proves this intent but multiple factors.
For cases involving child pornography stored on file-sharing computer programs, the state does not have to prove that anything had actually been shared with others through the file-sharing program. It is enough to show that the explicit content was stored using such a program. Additionally, defendants cannot defend themselves by claiming they did not actually intend to distribute the explicit material using the program.
Finally, the state does not have to prove that a defendant was even aware that others could access child pornography stored on a file-sharing program. The fact that the explicit content was contained within a file-sharing program is typically all that matters.
Possible Sentencing for Defendants Convicted of Possession of Child Pornography in Atlantic City, NJ
If a defendant is convicted of possession of child pornography, the sentencing phase of the trial will likely be harsh. While judges have some discretion when it comes to imposing a sentence, they rarely show leniency to defendants convicted of crimes against children.
General Sentencing
The crime of possession of child pornography is almost always a felony, otherwise called an indictable crime in New Jersey. The ordinary terms of imprisonment for indictable crimes are described under N.J.S.A. § 2C:43-6(a). For a first-degree crime, which is one of the most severe criminal charges possible, a convicted defendant may face at least 10 years and up to 20 years in prison. The next step down is a second-degree crime, which may be penalized with at least 5 years and up to 10 years in prison. Finally, a third-degree crime carries a possible prison term of no longer than 18 months.
For many defendants, these sentencing terms are only the beginning. If you are facing multiple charges or the prosecutor proves certain aggravating factors of the case, your overall sentence might be harsher.
Mandatory Minimum Requirements
While defendants are often concerned with the maximum prison terms of their case, we should also consider the minimum terms. While the above ordinary sentencing terms describe some minimum prison sentences, there are other, harsher possibilities.
Under the law regarding criminal charges for child pornography, if a defendant is determined to have been in possession of at least 100 items depicting child pornography, the court must impose a prison sentence unless doing so would be an injustice. Remember, only 100 items would result in charges for a third-degree crime, which has a maximum prison term of 18 months but no minimum. However, under this law, a judge must impose a prison term rather than something more lenient like probation.
If a defendant is convicted of a second, third, or subsequent offense for child pornography, their prison term may be extended according to N.J.S.A. § 2C:43-7(a). For a first-degree crime, the sentence increases to at least 20 years and up to life. For a second-degree crime, the sentence increases to at least 10 years and up to 20 years. Finally, for a third-degree crime, the sentence increases to at least 5 years and up to 10 years.
Finding the Right Defense to Charges for Child Pornography Possession in Atlantic City, NJ
Every criminal defendant has the right to put up a defense against criminal charges. The prosecutor is required to show us all their relevant evidence during the discovery phase of the case, and our child pornography possession lawyers can use this information to build an effective defense. While the best defense will differ between defendants, some common strategies are described below.
Unlawful Searches and Seizures
To obtain evidence, the authorities often must search the defendant’s private property. This is incredibly important in cases involving child pornography. The police must find actual items depicting child pornography within your possession for you to be charged. As such, they will likely search your home, computer, and possibly other private areas. To accomplish this, the police need a warrant or a specific exception to the warrant rule.
The police must gather probable cause to support their request for a warrant to search your property. Probable cause itself should be some articulable evidence to support law enforcement’s belief that child porn is in your possession and may be found in your home. The warrant must be approved and issued by an impartial judge. If a warrant is based on incorrect or insufficient probable cause, we could argue that it is invalid, and any evidence obtained pursuant to the warrant should be excluded.
Alternatively, if the police did not obtain a warrant, the search might be patently illegal. However, the search might still be lawful if the police have a valid exception to the warrant rule. For example, digital files containing child pornography might be quickly and easily deleted, making it harder for the police to find evidence. If the police reasonably believe you or someone else might scrub your computer clean before they can search it, they might be able to seize it without a warrant. Even so, we should push back against these arguments, as the police cannot simply walk all over your rights because they say so.
Lack of Intent
Criminal charges generally require some form of criminal intent from the defendant. In cases involving the possession of child pornography, the charges require that the defendant act knowingly. Put another way, the defendant must know that they have child pornography in their possession or under their control. A person may not be held criminally responsible for illicit materials that they did not know existed.
If child pornography was found in your home or on your computer but you did not know about it, talk to your attorney about it immediately. Is there anyone else in your life who has access to your home or computer? In some cases, defendants find out that child pornography was saved on their computer by a relative, friend, or roommate. Your attorney can help you cooperate with law enforcement while also protecting your rights. As the police continue their investigation, they may uncover evidence that clears your name and identifies the real culprit.
No Children Were Involved
Another possibility is that the illicit items alleged to be child pornography might not actually be child pornography. Pornography depicting consenting adults is not illegal. However, there might be some confusion when an adult depicted in pornographic material looks very young. If the explicit content did not actually depict children, you should not be charged. We would need some evidence that the person or people depicted are indeed adults. If you obtained or downloaded the material from a legitimate source, share it with your lawyer. We may be able to use this information to verify the age of those in the images or videos seized by law enforcement.
Evidence Used to Support Child Pornography Possession Charges in Atlantic City, NJ
Before we begin developing defense strategies for your case, we need to understand exactly what kind of evidence we are up against. The prosecution must share their relevant evidence with us during the discovery phase. If evidence is not shared at this time, it may be kept out of the case, barring special circumstances.
Depending on how the alleged child pornography is stored, the police will very likely search your computer and seize it as evidence. Your computer files may be the key evidence in the case. Even deleted files might still leave a digital trail for investigators to follow. Physical photographs, video tapes, or discs might also be important evidence in the prosecutor’s case. Undermining or excluding this kind of evidence might be a highly effective defense tactic if the police somehow violated your rights during the investigation.
A search of your home is very likely going to happen if it has not happened already. The police might obtain evidence they believe supports charges for possession of child pornography or perhaps indicates an intent to distribute. For example, emails that do not contain pornography but are about it, such as emails about selling, buying, or trading items of child pornography, may be seized.
How an Atlantic City, NJ Attorney Can Help You Fight Charges for Child Pornography Possession
Your lawyer should review the evidence to determine if anything was seized illegally. Since the evidence in these kinds of cases often comes from the defendant’s private home and computer, we must double-check things like search warrants to make sure that no legal violations occur.
If excluding evidence is not possible, your lawyer can help you search for other evidence that refutes the claims made by prosecutors. For example, maybe you have evidence showing that child pornography was not yours but belonged to a roommate, and maybe you had no idea it existed. Maybe you did not intend to download child pornography. Navigating the internet is not always simple, and accidental downloads of illicit materials are not unheard of. Whatever the case might be, your lawyer can help you find the evidence to support your defense.
Speak to Our Atlantic City, NJ Child Pornography Possession Attorneys About Your Case Now
Call (609) 616-4956 and ask our child pornography possession lawyers at the Law Offices of John J. Zarych for a free case review.
