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   A Great Step Backward for Mankind

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Topic: A Great Step Backward for Mankind (Read 178 times)

Rhune
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A Great Step Backward for Mankind
« on: Aug 5^th, 2005, 12:47pm »

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http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/12307464.htm

Almost as quickly as a federal judge threw out a conviction for enticing a teenager on the Internet, the firestorm hit.

A jury this week convicted Mission Hills lawyer Jan Helder, but minutes later U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple acquitted him. The defense successfully argued that breaking the law requires actually enticing a minor - not enticing a Platte County deputy pretending to be a minor.

After the ruling, puzzled state officials from Kansas and Missouri reviewed the federal enticement law and began discussing a campaign to strengthen its wording.

Angry child-safety advocates worried that the ruling would stifle the progress that undercover police operations have made protecting children from Internet predators.

"Does there need to be someone out there abducted or hurt by (a predator) to say, 'Oh, yeah, that's what he intended to do?'" said Cyrilla Bender, founder of Mothers Outraged at Molesters.

On Thursday federal prosecutors in Kansas City asked Whipple to reconsider his ruling. They noted that he had ruled the opposite way on the same issue in a different case last month.

Whipple declined to comment on his ruling.

Helder's defense lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, said Thursday: "The court's judgment is based on a plain reading of the wording of the statute and supporting congressional history."

Tuesday's ruling appears to be the first of its kind in the nation, according to lawyers.

If it stands, it could threaten federal prosecution programs that use undercover agents to catch child-sex offenders. The Tuesday ruling drew fire on local talk radio shows and was discussed Thursday night on the television show, "The O'Reilly Factor."

Area law enforcement officials said they were surprised by Whipple's decision but did not plan on changing their methods. Federal and state agencies use investigators to comb Internet chat rooms, posing as young teens. Predators who engage the officers for the purpose of sexual activities are then arrested.

"This is not going to affect, in any shape or form, how we pursue these cases," said Capt. Frank Hunter of the Platte County Sheriff's Department, which handled the Helder case. "As far as we're concerned, it's business as usual."

As for Helder's case, Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said Thursday that he was reviewing it. He expects to announce today whether he will file charges in state court.

Jeff Lanza, spokesman for the local FBI office, said ensuring that the Internet is safe for children was a mission for his agency and would continue to be.
"We have not changed our strategy, and we will continue to utilize undercover agents to catch child predators," Lanza said.

John La Fond, a law professor at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, said that if not struck down on appeal, Whipple's decision could have a significant effect on law enforcement.

Attempts to commit crimes are usually dealt with as severely as crimes successfully carried out, La Fond noted. "The trend of the law is to punish people for their intentions."

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline wrote to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about Whipple's ruling and spoke to state legislators.

Kline's spokesman, Whitney Watson, said Kline hoped the ruling would be overturned.

In addition to that, Watson said, there were discussions going on about the need to improve federal law. Kline is co-chairman of the National Association of Attorneys General violent sexual-predator task force.

Whipple has not yet put his reasons for ordering the acquittal in writing. On Tuesday he spoke of the exact wording of the federal law applying to minors. And he noted that a 1998 bill to change the law to clearly apply to undercover officers failed, raising questions of legislative intent.

Johnson County District Attorney Paul Morrison said that words can be key in an enticement law.

"How a statute is drafted is literally everything," Morrison said Thursday. "In Kansas, our legislators said basically in no uncertain terms that if (the crime) is impossible to complete, it doesn't matter to make the case of attempt."

Law enforcement agencies across the nation have cyber-crimes units with investigators combing Internet chat rooms that authorities say are swimming with predators.

In the Kansas City area, the Platte County Sheriff's Department has been on the lookout for Internet predators for more than a year. Two cyber-crime detectives have spent hours in local chat rooms and have made cases on suspects from all five counties in the metro area.

Other agencies have looked at Platte County's success and are creating cyber-crimes units. In Overland Park, police hope to have such a unit operating by the first of the year. Child enticement cases will be some of what the assigned officers do.

Overland Park Police Chief John Douglass said his department continues to plan on operating a cyber-crimes unit.

"I think, in any understanding of law, you have to understand it's a living document. Not something that is static," Douglass said. "It's constantly changing and constantly open to interpretation. ... But the aggressive pursuit of those who prey on children won't stop."
Missouri and Kansas enticement and child solicitation laws allow prosecution involving undercover officers.
But state penalties are not as severe as those available under federal
law: up to 30 years in prison. That's why the federal law is so vital, Watson said.

Prosecutors in Jackson County and many other counties also say they lack the resources to pursue such cases.
Whipple's reading of the federal law breaks with rulings by three federal appellate courts. Those courts found that intent to entice a minor was enough. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles appeals from the Kansas City district, has apparently not spoken on the matter.

If it were to agree with Whipple, the U.S. Supreme Court would then have an opportunity to resolve the issue.

In 1998, an attempt to clarify the law failed in Congress. Whipple on Tuesday criticized an appellate court ruling that said the failed effort was unimportant. Another appellate court also found the issue unimportant. That ruling also said that taking a restrictive view of the law would be a mistake that would mean rarely getting a conviction or endangering actual children to do so.

"In that scenario the child molester gains," it said, "a result sharply at odds with the statute's text and purpose."

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Boradamer
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Re: A Great Step Backward for Mankind
« Reply #1 on: Aug 9^th, 2005, 11:55am »

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So, when it comes to vice squad operations I guess a person could get off by contending the undercover officer never planned on providing a service for the money therefore there was no crime.

Give me a break. Intention is everything. Get these people off the internet and make them fear preying on the youth.

$10 says the judge has no children.

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bec
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Re: A Great Step Backward for Mankind
« Reply #2 on: Aug 10^th, 2005, 7:05am »

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couldn't defense argue the same thing if a police officer was undercover as a hitman?

They could say "Oh he didn't really hire a hitman to kill his wife because it was a cop pretending to be one"

Broad i totally agree....intention is everything!

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