Child pornography indictment in Athens Georgia for former teacher
Ronald Malcus James, a former Walton County Georgia teacher, was indicted this week in Athens for his alleged involvement in internet child pornography. The Macon Telegraph and Athens Banner Herald have the story.
In Georgia, internet child pornography cases are usually charged under Georgia laws dealing with sexual exploitation of children and computer pornography. The charges can be serious, although Georgia does not have the same mandatory minimum penalties that are provided under federal law for receipt and/or transmission of child pornography. But even in Georgia courts, most prosecutors will seek jail time for people convicted of possessing multiple images of child porn.
Not surprisingly, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) is investigating this case. That agency usually gets involved in these cases because it has the capacity to conduct a computer forensic analysis and search for unlawful images on computers seized after arrest or through the execution of search warrants. Most local police departments in smaller Georgia cities and towns do not have this capability.
Our firm has represented several people charged with possession, transmission and receipt of computer child pornography. Like most criminal defense lawyers who handle these cases, we will first try to challenge the seizure of any computers and hard drives. We will also try to determine if there is a problem with the way the initial investigation was conducted.
The best way for a criminal lawyer to defend a case like this is to a retain top-notch computer forensic expert. We have used several computer experts to help us thoroughly review the physical evidence in child pornography cases to determine if there is a defense to the possession of the images. In several cases, we have found evidence that the images were inadvertently received and downloaded. We have also been able to show that, in some cases, the person charged with the crime tried to delete the image numerous times. In our experience, this is the only way a defense attorney can win or successfully resolve a case like this.
These cases can be particularly difficult to win at trial because the images are usually so disturbing that a jury may be ready to convict the person as soon as they see the pictures. That's why it is so important to try to get these cases resolved before they ever get that far.
