Alethea
Verified Attorney
- Joined
- Sep 21, 2016
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They've been sitting on him for a year, hoping he would give up BG? That he's facing these charges and hasn't given up BG - what does that say?? IMO, he faces worse than these charges if he gives up what he knows.
I think it's more likely that we may find out that the person who interviewed KAK in 2017 never sent the file over to the FBI or the prosecutor's office to file charges. Maybe they did not "intentionally" not send the case over (per today's press release) but it seems to me like someone made a mistake.
In my region, local police love undercover online predator stings. Small police departments in low-crime areas spend a lot of time pretending to be 14 year old girls online. These stings quickly lead to arrest and then referral to the FBI's Boston office for CSAM prosecution.
Recently a colleague of mine handled a case for a married business person. In some type of fraud investigation they found (adult) *advertiser censored* on his computer. A detective came to his house and quizzed him about what type of *advertiser censored* he looked at and tried to get him to say incriminating things. The client was adamant that he just occasionally looked at adult material but was traumatized that he had LE showing up at his door over this - this lead to a big discussion among the criminal defense bar about what defense attorneys should do in these types of cases (where your client insists they have never done anything illegal).
So when I say that LE and the FBI takes these cases seriously, that's what I mean. They are easy to prove (it is illegal to view or download CSAM and intent doesn't matter), the defendants are unsympathetic, the victims are incredibly sympathetic, and it's a way for LE people to feel good about what they're doing every day. In my experience, when LE sees a computer with CSAM, they quickly file charges. There are always errors and omissions in any agency (like someone pointed out in the Nassar investigation) but in day to day investigating and prosecuting crimes, these are popular cases.