I only ask because while there is a good chance none of our members do, maybe they know someone that does.
I've been stressing like a motherfucker lately about this shit, and it would be nice to get some first-hand advice, or, well, fuck... Just talk about this shit.
One of my closest friends, who I am closer to than my own brothers, is about to do some major time for trying to look at nudie self-shots of teens on the interwebz.
I've been working probably 30+ hours a week lately on trying to find relevant case law to try and prepare for his stupid fucking attorney (got the best he could afford, but it isn't much) who seems to have no solid experience in Federal courts, plus trying to prepare myself and other friends for losing him.
His actual charge is "Possession of child pornography" and according to the most recent paperwork (United States Probation/Pretrial Release Sentencing Recommendations) that was drawn up for his case and submitted, it looks like at the end of April, he is going away for 8 years.
I'm afraid he won't make it through, and these may be the last 2 months I'll ever spend with him, and at the risk of sounding like a bitch, its breaking my fucking heart.
Anyways... I've been trying to stuff as much shit in his head as I can before he goes, to try and prepare him as best as I can, but I know people with "sexual crimes against children" aren't really treated well in prison.
So, anyone ever gone to club Feb? I know there has to be someone here with a white collar stain on their record! haha
Advice? Recommendations? Input? Shit talking? Let it flow.
EDIT:
Right after I submitted this, I realized that people might ask for a little further clarification of the charges, so I'll just try to expand on that a little.
He was 26 when he got raided by the FBI in late 2010. No criminal record, a clean service record for the US military where he was honorably discharged for military-caused hearing loss, has always been an average and steady hard worker with a shit job. I've known him for 6 years. He is gay, but you would never fucking know it if he didn't tell you. He has dated a few times, but is rather timid when it comes to taking charge and getting laid, and thus, he is still a virgin.
He isn't like us, in that he has a very basic understanding of computers, and uses them accordingly. As anyone around from the Skittles era of WF will know quite well, if you wanna see a 16 year old chick snap titty pics on her iPhone, you don't need to look very hard to find them in abundance. Well, apparently the opposite isn't quite the same. So, he used a file sharing program to try and download and thus view images (a newb mistake I'll never forgive him for). He downloaded mostly zip and rar archives of teens.
Anyone that has done this (don't lie, we all downloaded porn at one time or another from shit like Limewire back in the day) knows as well as I do that you don't always get what the title implies.
He also didn't understand how P2P worked, and that everything he downloaded was also being shared. So, downloaded archives of 'teens' thinking 16-20 year olds, looked at probably 5% of the images (in my old porn experience, archives contain hundreds, if not thousands, of files) and went on about his business. One of the archives contained 110 or so images of 'children' (from the evidence I've been able to get his attorney to provide, these were 13-14 year olds, and comprised nearly exclusively of nudity, but not abuse/sex/sexual acts), and another multi GB archive of videos he downloaded contained 74 "questionable" video files, with three of them being confirmed children. One video contained a 13 year old with his hands bound, and that is what nailed him to the cross.
An agent in NY (we are in the southwest) was searching for illegal files by connecting>grabbing files and got one of these archives from his computer (now it is distribution across state lines).
Warrant was issued, raid took place, everything seized, etc etc etc
US filed indictment for possession and for distribution.
Was offered a plea of only possession, and took it.
In explaining all of this to anyone that hasn't been in the middle of the whole situation, I feel akin to a mother trying to defend her sons character and saying "my boy is a good boy!", but it isn't like that.
He fucked up, and he indeed did intend to look at underage images, but the really young shit was a fluke, it's not what he's into, and I do know that for a fact.
I know I'll probably catch a lot of shit here, but sometimes you cunts can be quite level-headed and rational people, so I figured why the fuck not try.
