Child Pornography Video Defense Lawyer in California
To possess, produce, or distribute child pornography videos is illegal in California. Additionally, possession, distribution, or production of child pornography leads to and may also result in charges of internet pornography, child prostitution, child trafficking, and others.
Videos include computer hardware, laser discs, floppy disks, DVDs, and basically any kind of film that portrays child pornography.
The prosecution does not have to prove that the material was sold or distributed, but mere possession of child pornography videos is punishable as a sex crime. Thus, the prosecution must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt and we as your sex crime defense attorneys will stand by you and do everything we can to protect your legal rights.
Law Enforcement Monitors Chat Rooms
A lot of people don't realize that the state and federal government are monitoring the internet constantly. They're in chat rooms and arresting people and getting information from them.
They're seizing websites that are involved with child pornography. Just by hitting a few keys on your computer you can put yourself in a whole world of problems related to child pornography in Los Angeles and even across the country.
Typically, when I see child pornography — if it's a lot of child pornography — the federal government is going to be involved. They're going to come and issue a search warrant. They're going to take all of the person's devices — computer, phones, tablets — and then they're going to sit down and corner the person and try to get a statement from them.
A lot of times people are just honest and give a bunch of information to the police because they're so scared and shocked that the police have actually come to their home, taken all of their devices and are now trying to talk to them.
Federal Sex Crime Case
If it is a federal case, a lot of times they'll let that person go for now while they analyze and try to figure out everything that's on the devices that they took. Then ultimately, a prosecutor will review the case and decide whether to file federal charges against that person.
I don't know that there's any hard and fast policy. I'm sure they do have certain requirements in order to file a case federally. A lot of it seems to have to do with the amount of videos or images that you have.
Obviously, the more you have, the more likely the feds will deal with the case versus if you just have a few images, they're likely to just kick that down to the state government that has jurisdiction over wherever the search warrant was executed and let them deal with the charges. In Los Angeles County you'll end up downtown typically in Department 30. That's the arraignment court. They have special sex crime prosecutors who deal with those cases.
So, it depends on a host of different factors — what your criminal record looks like; how images they find; and what type of images there are. They really get down to the nitty-gritty of that type of stuff and people just think that they're never going to get caught. There's no way the government can monitor that type of stuff.
Depending on how you access the child pornography videos, that's probably going to dictate the likelihood of the government getting involved — arresting you, charging you and putting you into court.
Victims Seeking Restitution
You just don't realize the amount of problems that you get yourself into. Another big issue I'm seeing coming up is that these victims that are being put on these videos that people are looking at attempting now to seek restitution from the perpetrators of these crimes, and people again can't understand that.
Well, I didn't have anything to do with procuring the victim. All I'm doing is looking at videos, but the position that the courts, prosecutors and the legislature takes is, if there wasn't people on the internet looking at these videos, then there would be no market for it and these people would not be being exploited.
So, they have this whole procedure where they're trying to determine the restitution in the case, but it could be thousands of dollars in addition to going to federal prison, having a mark on your record, having to register as a sex offender.
So, you get yourself into a whole world of problems when you're on the internet looking at child pornography — whether it be images or video. If it's a video, they consider it more images than just one image. So, that's really where you start to add up and it's so easy to download a lot of images or videos just by a few clicks. A lot of times you'll click one thing and a whole bunch of stuff will come on to your computer.
Consulting With An Experienced Lawyer
So, if you've got one of these child pornography cases where you've got videos on your computer or actual physical videos or photographs of under-age individuals then what you should do is immediately contact an attorney.
Set up a meeting with that attorney. Be honest with the attorney. You're going to be protected and you can tell the attorney what's going on. You an tell them the truth because the attorney/client privilege will not allow that attorney to tell anybody about that and then you can retain the attorney and the attorney can help you get through this very difficult time with so much at stake.
You really need a guide and somebody who has been down this road before and has handled these type of cases and knows what it takes to get the best possible result.
Being charged with a sex crime creates a permanent mark on your life because a sex crime conviction requires you to register as a sex offender under California Penal Code section 290 for the rest of your life.
At the Hedding law Firm, we understand the consequences of a sex crime conviction and that is why we use all our knowledge, experience, and aggressive strategies to get your charges dismissed completely or reduced. We have a combined 75 years of experience and we are confident that we can efficiently and effectively defend you if you are facing such charges. Call our sex offender lawyers to set up a free case review.
