That’s illegal?
As far as I can tell, this guy is on trial for photoshopping the heads of minors onto the bodies of adult nude models:
It was during the suspension that a district investigator searching Stelmack’s office found a briefcase with the five images depicting the faces of two girls affixed to copies of a nude 19-year-old woman’s body.
Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s creepy and I wouldn’t want the guy as principal of a school but that’s illegal?
June 12th, 2009 at 10:39 am
If you draw several stick figures on top of one another and caption it “Orgy of 5-year-olds”, you are breaking the law. For all I know, the preceding sentence violates the law. Child porn laws are about as zero tolerance as US law gets.
June 12th, 2009 at 10:46 am
I thought there was a case a while that made it as far as the Supreme Court or at least one of the circuit courts of appeal that said erotic drawings of kids were not child porn because no actual kids were harmed in the making (and maybe therefore 1st Amendment rights trumped).
June 12th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
The supreme court has explicitly said that images created or altered to appear to be child porn, that aren’t really child porn, cannot be prosecuted as child porn under federal law.
That does not necessarily explicitly apply to the states however; as many states have their own definition of child porn that is more stringent than the federal definition.
If the laws are written properly, so as not to violate the supremacy clause, it may still be illegal depending on the state.
That said, it’s doubtful whether a conviction on such a basis would stand up on appeal to the federal level.
June 12th, 2009 at 3:43 pm
I believe that the case will hinge, on appeal, as to whether the photoshop artist who produced them had an intent to raise a prurient interest. If so, he’s making license plates or Prison Blues by day and fending off unwanted anal sex by night for at least five years.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
Actually, for child porn (vs. just plain old porn and obscenity), the standard is whether there was “sexual exploitation of a minor”.
They could always just get him on obscenity of course.
June 12th, 2009 at 6:37 pm
guilty on all five counts after just an hour and a half of deliberation; each count carries prison time of up to five years. also, held without bond pending appeal.
while i’m not sure this will stand, it truly is sick. and an elementary school principal using the head of at least one of the kids under his control for his pretend kiddie porn?
my grandkids are right near where this happened, and right or wrong, if my sweet little girl’s face is used in this way by this sick old bastard? death to him at my hand, and i would willingly pay the consequences.
jtc
June 12th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
My old boss discovered the town’s photog doing just that – then blackmailing the girls into working at a “party house” near Tulsa. Judge gave him 55 years, no parole. Town said “good.”
Stranger