POLK COUNTY, Fla.—After 3 ½ months in a Polk County jail, Philip Greaves, the Colorado native extradited to Florida in December on charges of distributing obscene material depicting minors engaged in conduct harmful to minors, pleaded no contest in court Wednesday and received a sentence of time served plus two years probation. Greaves is the author of The Pedophile's Guide to Love and Pleasure, which received national attention last year when it was discovered that the self-published book was available for sale on Amazon.com.
Following the e-book’s removal by Amazon in November, Greaves remained a topic of national conversation and had other books he had authored removed from the online retailer’s site. At the time, the 47-year old former nurse's aide told The Smoking Gun that he was a manic depressive who began writing as a form of therapy after being hospitalized following a "mental collapse,” and consistently maintained that he was not a pedophile, despite having written a “code of conduct” for pedophiles.
In December, Polk County sheriff Grady Judd apparently decided that Greaves was a threat despite being in Colorado, and directed one of his detectives to order a copy of the book from Greaves and have it sent to a Lakeland, Fla., post office box. After it was received, the sheriff leapt into action, sending detectives to Colorado to escort Greaves back to the Sunshine State after local authorities had arrested him at his Pueblo home.
He was subsequently charged under 847.011(1)(C) of the 2010 Florida Statutes. That same month, AVN published articles calling the charges into question after Florida attorney Larry Walters noted problems with the statutory language Polk County used to justify Greaves arrest and extradition. Walters told AVN at the time that it appeared as if Polk County judge J. Michael McCarthy had used the wrong Florida statute in charging Greaves with a third-degree felony, which was required in order to have him extradited. An extradition is not possible for a misdemeanor charge, Walters said.
With the “no contest” plea deal, however, that issue and other First Amendment issues Greaves’ attorneys had are moot. Greaves will be able to serve his probation in Colorado and will not have to register as a sex offender in either state, because he was not charged with actually molesting a minor.
Photo: Philip Greaves following his arrest and extradition by Polk County, Fla., detectives
