Court Slaps Prosecutor Who Threatened Child-Porn Charges Over ‘Sexting’

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A Pennsylvania appellate court upheld a preliminary injunction on Wednesday barring local prosecutors from filing felony child-porn charges against a teenage girl who took a partially nude photo of herself with her cellphone.

The court said prosecutors were using the threat of charges as retaliation against the teen for exercising her constitutional right to refuse a voluntary reeducation program favored by the district attorney. The court also determined it was likely the girl and her parents will succeed in a civil rights lawsuit they’ve filed against the district attorney’s office.

Last year, District Attorney George P. Skumanick, Jr., threatened to charge three teenage girls with felony child-porn violations over digital photos they took of themselves.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania filed a federal lawsuit against Skumanick on behalf of the girls and their parents accusing Skumanick of violating the girls’ civil rights. The suit said they had a constitutionally protected right to appear in the pictures and that the threat to prosecute the minors was “unprecedented and stands anti-child-pornography laws on their head.”

The ACLU won a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania barring the prosecutor from bringing criminal charges against the three girls, which the court granted. Skumanick appealed.

Read More http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2010/03/sexting-lawsuit/#ixzz0ic8eczLk

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