Kardasz: Computers at public libraries are used by child pornography traffickers and by sexual predators
who wish to lure and entice minors. Please encourage computer restrictions and monitoring at your library that will inhibit offenders. Here are examples of some sad incidents from various locations throughout the United States.
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Arizona
Child Pornography Suspect Sentenced
On February 20 2004, 24 year old Gary Lee Davis plead guilty in Maricopa County Superior Court to one count of sexual exploitation of a minor for possessing child pornography. The case began on March 24 2003, when a horrified patron of the Cholla branch of the Phoenix Public library at 10050 Metro Parkway East noticed that Davis was viewing child pornography on a public-access computer there.
The alert patron notified the lethargic library staff and repeatedly demanded that police be notified. As Davis fled in a vehicle, responding Phoenix Police officers stopped and arrested him nearby. Davis was found in possession of dozens of disturbing images of children being sexually exploited. Investigators were unable to substantiate added allegations that Davis had committed child molestation. He was permitted to plead guilty before Judge Granville to possession of one unlawful image and received the Arizona minimum mandatory sentence for the offense, ten years prison. Davis also received lifetime probation and will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release.
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Nevada
August 2005
Yesterday it was reported that: "A 29-year-old Reno man was arrested on 10 counts of suspicion of possession of child pornography Wednesday, after someone reported he was viewing sexual images of children on a computer at a public library in northwest Reno, Washoe County sheriff's deputies said."
The Washoe County (Nev.) Library does not require patrons to use filters (policy at http://www.washoe.lib.nv.us/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=1552&page_id=38 ).
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Florida
Patrons' visits to porn sites may cost librarian her job
VALPARAISO - A Florida librarian has been suspended and may be fired by officials upset that a registered sex offender and three boys allegedly used the city library's computers to access pornographic Internet sites. Sue Martin, head librarian at the Valparaiso Community Library, was suspended with pay and will receive a hearing within 60 days, City Attorney Doug Wyckoff said Thursday. City Commissioner Robert Billingsley said he will ask the commission to dismiss Martin but declined to elaborate on why he thinks she failed to do enough to keep patrons from using the computers to find pornography. Hard drives have been removed from the computers and the public has been prohibited from using them until further notice. Martin does not have a telephone listing under her name, but she wrote a letter to Billingsley, who oversees library matters for the commission, after the sex offender allegedly viewed a pornographic site July 25. "We continually enforce our policy by monitoring all computers," she wrote. "Any suspicious use is immediately checked by accessing the history of the patrons' Web use. In addition, the staff monitors the patrons' use by 'walkthroughs' of the computer areas." The library's Internet policy forbids using computers for "illegal or fraudulent activity" or displaying "images which other library users may find offensive to view." Parents or guardians must sign a responsibility contract before minors can use the computers, acknowledging they are strictly for educational purposes and that it's impossible for staff to restrict access to all controversial materials. Michael Bushee, 25, was charged with possession of child pornography several days after he allegedly accessed porn on a library computer. Police said they found computer discs, tapes and pictures of child pornography at his home. Billingsley said Police Chief Joseph Hart a week later told him that three juveniles also had viewed pornographic material on a library computer.
Bob Gorin, coordinator of Okaloosa County's public library cooperative, said each library has its own policy but typically have staff walk by computers and look at sites being visited. Blocking software is available but is easy to get around, Gorin said. A call to the American Library Association for comment Friday was not immediately returned.
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Washington
Sex offender arrested for child porn
By Lisa Curdy - Daily World Writer
After officers found a garbage can full of child pornography, a Hoquiam police lieutenant posed online as an 11 - year - old boy and received a lot more garbage. A convicted sex offender allegedly e - mailed him images of adults violating children and children having sex with other children. Steven L. Jordan, 53, was jailed and charged today in Grays Harbor Superior Court with dealing and possessing child pornography. A Level I registered sex offender - a category reserved for those who bear monitoring but are rated least likely to reoffend
Jordan was convicted in 1987 of two counts of first - degree statutory rape, according to Deputy Prosecutor Jason Richards. Jordon was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his residence in the 200 block of West First Street in Aberdeen. He's lived there for the past six months, police said. Police found graphic sexual images involving adult men and several young boys as well as a pre - pubescent girl, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Additional images found on a computer that Jordan had used at the Aberdeen Timberland Library were similar to those found in the garbage can, according to the State Patrol Crime Lab. He could face additional charges following the forensic examination of his home computers, according to the Hoquiam Police Department and the arrest warrant. Hoquiam Police began investigating Jordan on March 21 after checking out a report of a methamphetamine lab at his former residence in the 100 block of 23rd Street.
County Drug Task Force agents found a small meth lab and while searching outside the home, discovered a garbage can that contained "what appeared to be minor children engaged in sexually explicit acts, including photos of nude boys fondling each other," according to a Hoquiam Police memo.
Detectives obtained another search warrant and began sifting through the can's contents. They say it was crammed with downloaded pornographic pictures of young boys, e - mails discussing slavery, bondage and child sex, as well as bills and Department of Social & Health Services statements in Jordan's name. Detectives Joe Strong and David Cox took fingerprints from some of the photos. The Crime Lab determined that "several of the fingerprints" were Jordan's.
Meantime, Lt. Jim Maloney, the acting police chief, posed as an 11 - year - old and sent an e - mail to one of the addresses found inside the garbage can. "Almost immediately, Lt. Maloney began receiving e - mail messages," Hoquiam Police said in a statement. "This person described himself as a 12 - year - old boy from Hoquiam." A picture of young children - boys and girls - having sex was sent on April 25 to Maloney's fictitiously named e - mail account.
Detective Strong had received a call from an Aberdeen Library employee, who said the staff had seen Jordan using an "isolated" library computer on April 8. The computer was immediately seized and the data analyzed. It was more of the same. During the search of Jordan's home Wednesday, police found "several computers and other possible child pornography," as well as a bill for the computer e - mail account that Lt. Maloney had been receiving e - mail from, according to the arrest warrant.
The Grays Harbor Daily World August 8, 2002 http://www.thedailyworld.com/daily/2002/Aug-08-Thu-2002/news/news3.html
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Massachusetts
Former library director indicted on porn, assault charges
July 14, 2005 SALEM, Mass.
The former director of Beverly's public library has been indicted on child pornography and other charges in connection with a relationship he had with a teenage boy he met at the library. Thomas Scully, 56, was indicted on Wednesday on seven counts of possession of child pornography, as well as indecent assault and battery and disseminating material harmful to a minor. Scully was director for 19 years until he retired earlier this year two weeks after he was charged.
Scully allegedly met the then 15-year-old boy at the library two years ago while the boy was visiting a sexually explicit chat room on a library computer. Scully invited the boy to his home where he showed him gay pornographic movies and allowed him access to X-rated Web sites, prosecutors said. The boy said he visited Scully's home hundreds of times. Police learned of the relationship when the boy's foster father reported that Scully gave the boy gifts. During one visit, Scully allegedly grabbed the boy's buttocks, prosecutors said. Scully's lawyer has said his client is innocent.
The indictments move the case from the district court to Salem Superior Court, where he will be arraigned within the several weeks. Scully has been free on his own recognizance since April, under the condition that he stay away from the Beverly Public Library as well as the boy and his family.
Information from: The Salem News, http://www.salemnews.com/
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Nevada
Child porn case spotlights libraries’ Internet policies
Martha Bellisle RENO GAZETTE-JOURNAL Posted: 4/13/2005 12:01 am
Whenever staff at the county library passed near Jeffrey Olson as he scrolled through Internet sites, he would quickly change his screen, but when a nearby computer user saw pictures of naked children, he called the sheriff’s office. Olson, 30, who was using one of the Washoe County Library’s adult, nonfiltered computers in northwest Reno to download child pornography, was arrested and charged with 13 counts of possession.
He pleaded guilty to two counts, and on Tuesday was sentenced to five years of probation, a punishment both the prosecution and defense agreed was appropriate for someone who had no criminal record and wasn’t likely to hurt anyone. While his case drew little media attention, it sparked intense discussions among library officials about how to handle suspected illegal behavior by computer users. The issue, the first of its kind in Washoe County, ultimately provoked the county library’s Board of Trustees this year to change procedures for handling suspicious activity on the Internet so that library visitors can continue to enjoy their intellectual freedom while illegal conduct is halted, said Dianne Varnon, manager of the northwest Reno library.
Before Olson’s arrest, library staff members were uncertain about whether they needed solid proof of illegal behavior before calling in law enforcement. Now, the staff has a list of guidelines to follow when suspicions are sparked, Varnon said. The staff members are now encouraged to call 911, notify managers, preserve evidence, turn off the computer’s monitor and even remove the computer’s mouse and keyboard or disconnect the Ethernet cable if appropriate, according to the official procedures. “We take Internet use very seriously, particularly how children might interact with the Internet,” Varnon said.
The board sought to ensure safe use of their computers, while “balancing that against a person’s right to reach sites that they need to reach.” Olson had been viewing questionable sites at the library’s northwest branch on several occasions, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Dave Clifton, but was not caught until the man using the computer near him called in the sheriff Sept. 29. “We didn’t get him the first time,” Clifton said. Once the sheriff’s office became involved, deputies searched Olson’s personal computer and found pictures that he had brought home to view, Clifton said. Olson’s lawyer, Shelly O’Neill, said he is “young and very naïve for his age” and didn’t realize the serious nature of his actions. She also said the worst offenders are getting away with the worst crime. “I adamantly believe that people like my client are the least culpable in these cases,” she said. “The most culpable are the people who create the pornography in the first place. “It seems like the very bad actors are escaping prosecution.” “That’s one thing we’re working on,” said Jeff Clark, a detective with the Washoe County Sheriff’s Office who handles Internet crimes. “But the Internet thing is so much bigger than anyone can imagine.”
While the FBI investigates the sources of the sites, his agency focuses on the users, he said. And it does not take much to commit a crime, he said. “As soon as you bring child pornography on to your computer, that’s when it becomes illegal,” he said, adding it does not have to be downloaded to be against the law.
But O’Neill said the question of whether viewing actually qualifies as possession under the law has not been tested. Like many of the legal issues surrounding the Internet, much is unsettled, she said. “The technology is exceeding the legal research and court rulings,” she said. “It’s happening fast.”
One area that has been clarified came from a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 2003. Congress had passed the Children’s Internet Protection Act in 2000, stating that libraries that fail to use filtering software on their computers cannot have access to certain federal funds. A federal judge ruled the law unconstitutional, but on appeal, the high court said the law was valid.
In response to the ruling, Washoe County library officials reviewed their options and decided to use filters on some computers, but not all, said Larry Schritchfield, the county’s Internet services librarian. In the northwest branch, for example, the library has 13 computers with Internet access, Varnon said. Six are adult-only, nonfiltered machines, while seven have filters, she said. Children wishing to use nonfiltered computers must have parental approval, she said. That decision meant the loss of some funding, Schritchfield said, but that was acceptable. “We weren’t getting that much funding to begin with,” he said, “and the application process was onerous. “Filters work imperfectly,” he added. “They let some things through that you don’t want, and block other things that are legitimate.”
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Massachusetts
On 9/26, it was reported: "A 46-year-old man wanted in Arizona for failing to register as a sex offender was arrested at the Boston Public Library yesterday where he used a computer to try to lure a 12-year-old Maryland girl, police said."
In Boston, *which accepts e-rate funds under CIPA but allows patrons to disable filteirng* (policy at http://www.bpl.org/general/policies/internet_pol.htm )
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=46013
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Florida
In Florida at the Lee County Library, The News-Press reported on 9/23 that: "A convicted sex offender who admitted downloading child pornography from the Internet at a Lee County public library has been indicted in federal court...Lee County Library Director Cynthia Cobb said the library system has installed software that blocks pornography on computers used by children. But computers used by adults have full links to the Internet."
http://vh10066.v1.moc.gbahn.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040923/NEWS01/4 09230435/1075
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New York
MAN ADMITS DOWNLOADING PORN AT LIBRARY; STUDENTS COMPLAINED ABOUT "DIRTY OLD MAN.' PORNOGRAPHY WAS OF CHILDREN.
The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) October 23, 2004 By Jim O'Hara Staff writer
A Syracuse man charged with using a public library to download child pornography last year avoided a trial by pleading guilty Friday. Wayne E. Harding, 50, of 469 James St., pleaded guilty before Onondaga County Judge Anthony Aloi to a single felony count of possessing a sexual performance by a child in the discovery of child pornography on a computer at Upstate Medical University's Health Sciences Library at Weiskotten Hall. Assistant District Attorney Gary Dawson said it was the first local prosecution of a defendant on criminal charges relating to pornography on a public computer. The trial was expected to begin Monday.
Harding was facing 12 counts of possessing the sexual performance of a child as a result of the dozen images he accessed on the library's computer Feb.27, 2003, prosecutors said. The images depicted someone younger than 16 engaged in sexually explicit activity. The case was expected to come down to a battle of computer experts in court next week as the sides wrangled over whether the evidence was sufficient to link Harding to the computer containing the pornographic images. "I thought I could win," defense lawyer Eric Jeschke said Friday as he left court following Harding's guilty plea. That plea, Jeschke said, had come "as a complete surprise to me." Jeschke said he and Harding were in court Friday morning only to have the defendant waive his right to a jury trial so Aloi alone would preside over the trial set to begin Monday. Harding opted to plead guilty in a deal that calls for him to be sentenced to 1 1/2 to three years in prison, Jeschke said. According to Dawson, a number of students had complained to the librarian about "a dirty old man" viewing pictures of nude and partially clothed children on the library's computer.
Campus security was notified after the librarian watched for about 10 minutes as the man viewed similar types of images, Dawson said. A security officer also watched as the suspect continued to view pornographic images on the computer before confronting him, Dawson said. Harding claimed the images had accidentally come on as "pop ups" and that he was equally offended by them, the prosecutor said. Authorities issued Harding a trespass notice barring him from returning to the library and escorted him from the building, Dawson said. In writing up a report of the incident, security officials discovered that Harding was registered as a Level 3 sex offender on the sex offender registry, the prosecutor said. Upon further investigation, officials discovered Harding also was on federal supervised release for a child pornography conviction.
Federal officials were notified and the library computer was seized and sent out for examination, Dawson said. According to the prosecutor, authorities discovered a great deal of "child erotica" images on the computer in addition to a number of images that would be considered pornographic. Twelve of those pornographic images were accessed on the computer the day Harding was escorted from the library, Dawson said. Those pornographic images had been accessed about five hours before Harding was escorted from the premises, but witnesses placed Harding in the library at that computer for that entire period, Dawson said. But Jeschke said the evidence showed those 12 images had last been accessed in only about a 40-second time period and he said he was prepared to have a computer expert testify there was no way to show that the images had actually been called up on the computer screen and viewed by anyone in particular. The defense also was challenging whether Harding had any control over the computer images. But Dawson was prepared to show that he did, based on evidence that during the time Harding was on the computer, some of the erotic images had been uploaded to another computer by the user. The two sides had been preparing to battle in court even though Harding had admitted possessing child pornography when he pleaded guilty in federal court to violating his release on supervised probation and was sentenced to eight months in prison, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Fletcher. Fletcher said Harding was supposed to have no contact with a computer at all as a condition of his release on the prior child pornography conviction. Aloi had ruled, however, that the admission to the probation violation could not be used as evidence against Harding in the County Court pornography-possession case, Dawson said.
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Maryland
Child porn incident lands former law judge back in prison
By Brian M. Schleter, Staff Writer
A former state administrative law judge who was caught looking at child pornography at a public library - while he was on probation for molesting an Annapolis boy -- was sentenced yesterday to 5 years in prison. Marvin Lee Teal, formerly of Baltimore, "is a pedophile" and "is clearly a threat (to children). There's no question in my mind," said Circuit Court Judge Nancy Davis-Loomis. Teal, 53, has been convicted four times of sexually abusing minors, prosecutors said. Teal was a judge with the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings in the early 1990s.
In 1994 he received a pair of suspended sentences in Howard County for abusing young boys. He was on probation in those cases when he was arrested for molesting an 11-year-old Annapolis boy during a five-month period in 1996. They met at an area shopping center where the boy's mother had a business. The child spent time there after school and got to know Teal, who also worked at the center. A year later a judge sentenced him to serve 18 months, suspending the rest of his seven-year sentence. Teal was serving several sentences when he was paroled on March 1, 2003. Six weeks later police in Baltimore charged him with downloading pornographic images of minors at the Enoch Pratt Free Library in Baltimore. A federal grand jury indicted Teal in that case Jan. 29. A trial is set for July 19. Teal received sex offender therapy in prison. But he said he had just $67 in his pocket and the clothes on his back when he was released. He had no job or home and became depressed, unable to cope with his new reality. "Treatment can be an up-and-down process," he said. But a prison psychologist who treated Teal for three years said he was not cooperative. Teal seemed unmotivated and eventually withdrew from the voluntary group. "In my opinion he should have continued (treatment)," said Edward Diamond Jr. Judge Davis-Loomis found there was enough evidence in the Baltimore library case to convict Teal of breaking the rule of his probation that he have no contact with children. Assistant State's Attorney Laura Kiessling encouraged the judge "to keep this community's children as safe as (you) can for as long as (you) can" by imposing the remaining 5 years Teal had hanging over his head for the 1997 conviction. Teal's attorney, Assistant Public Defender Michele Vignola, asked that the case be closed without more jail time since
Teal could face a significant federal prison sentence if convicted in U.S. District Court. "He's not going anywhere fast," she said. --- bschleter@capitalgazette.com
http://www.hometownannapolis.com/cgi-bin/read/2004/05_04-14/TOP
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Arkansas
Child porn -Library porn – A 36 year old registered sex offender and pervert was recently arrested for downloading child pornography at an Arkansas public library. Allen Terry served time in prison for one count of child molestation in 1995 in Jasper, Indiana. This problem can be avoided if libraries use a full-time filter. Unfortunately, the Rogers Public Library only employs an “optional” filter for those who request it. Ironically, this did absolutely nothing to stop this pedophile down from carrying out his mission.
http://www.nwaonline.net/277785127838537.bsp
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Washington
Sex offender arrested for child porn
By Lisa Curdy - Daily World Writer
After officers found a garbage can full of child pornography, a Hoquiam police lieutenant posed online as an 11 - year - old boy and received a lot more garbage. A convicted sex offender allegedly e - mailed him images of adults violating children and children having sex with other children. Steven L. Jordan, 53, was jailed and charged today in Grays Harbor Superior Court with dealing and possessing child pornography. A Level I registered sex offender - a category reserved for those who bear monitoring but are rated least likely to reoffend - Jordan was convicted in 1987 of two counts of first - degree statutory rape, according to Deputy Prosecutor Jason Richards. Jordon was arrested Wednesday afternoon at his residence in the 200 block of West First Street in Aberdeen. He's lived there for the past six months, police said. Police found graphic sexual images involving adult men and several young boys as well as a pre - pubescent girl, according to the Prosecutor's Office. Additional images found on a computer that Jordan had used at the Aberdeen Timberland Library were similar to those found in the garbage can, according to the State Patrol Crime Lab.
He could face additional charges following the forensic examination of his home computers, according to the Hoquiam Police Department and the arrest warrant. Hoquiam Police began investigating Jordan on March 21 after checking out a report of a methamphetamine lab at his former residence in the 100 block of 23rd Street. County Drug Task Force agents found a small meth lab and while searching outside the home, discovered a garbage can that contained "what appeared to be minor children engaged in sexually explicit acts, including photos of nude boys fondling each other," according to a Hoquiam Police memo.
Detectives obtained another search warrant and began sifting through the can's contents. They say it was crammed with downloaded pornographic pictures of young boys, e - mails discussing slavery, bondage and child sex, as well as bills and Department of Social & Health Services statements in Jordan's name. Detectives Joe Strong and David Cox took fingerprints from some of the photos. The Crime Lab determined that "several of the fingerprints" were Jordan's. Meantime,
Lt. Jim Maloney, the acting police chief, posed as an 11 - year - old and sent an e - mail to one of the addresses found inside the garbage can. "Almost immediately, Lt. Maloney began receiving e - mail messages," Hoquiam Police said in a statement. "This person described himself as a 12 - year - old boy from Hoquiam." A picture of young children - boys and girls - having sex was sent on April 25 to Maloney's fictitiously named e - mail account.
Detective Strong had received a call from an Aberdeen Library employee, who said the staff had seen Jordan using an "isolated" library computer on April 8. The computer was immediately seized and the data analyzed. It was more of the same. During the search of Jordan's home Wednesday, police found "several computers and other possible child pornography," as well as a bill for the computer e - mail account that Lt. Maloney had been receiving e - mail from, according to the arrest warrant.
The Grays Harbor Daily World August 8, 2002 http://www.thedailyworld.com/daily/2002/Aug-08-Thu-2002/news/news3.html
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Minnesota
Librarians Win Hostile Work Environment Lawsuit
MINNEAPOLIS - The city's public library will consider using Internet filters to restrict patrons' access to online porn, and will pay $435,000 to a dozen librarians who said easy access to the images resulted in a hostile work environment, the librarians' lawyer said Friday. Library officials released a statement confirming the settlement, but did not mention the amount. Among other measures, the officials said they would consider Internet filters and an increase in the penalties for those who violate the library's
Internet policy. The library did not admit any wrongdoing. The issue arose in 1997, when librarians complained that staffers were being regularly exposed to pornographic images. Concern grew as patrons, including children, also were exposed to the graphic material. The librarians complained to state and federal agencies, and in 2001 the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission found probable cause that federal law had been violated because of a sexually hostile work environment. The case was referred to the Justice Department, which decided not to sue the library. The librarians filed a federal lawsuit in March.
AP US & WorldFriday, August 15, 2003 9:20:00 PM
The Associated Press. AP US & WorldFriday, August 15, 2003 9:20:00 P
