Three homemade videos showing their pre-teen daughter nude, found during a search of their home, got an Arkansas couple convicted and sent to prison in a case that began when the Internet modeling site they started for her fell under investigation.
MSNBC said James Cummings was sentenced to 13 years and his wife, Donna, was sentenced to 10 years, over the summer, and they also stood to lose custody of all four of their children if the convictions held up on appeal.
The Website and the videotapes involved their 12-year-old daughter. Now defunct, the site had included notes that interested customers could arrange private video shoots, which prosecutors told the court had suggestive connotations about videotapes possibly offered for sale.
The Cummingses were convicted under laws aimed at child pornographers even though no evidence was produced that what was on the videotapes was ever made public. The jury deadlocked, MSNBC said, on whether to convict Donna Cummings on a charge of producing, directing, or promoting a performance including sexual conduct by someone under 17.
The daughter herself testified the tapes showing her naked in the bathtub with her also-nude mother, and lying on a bed undressing out of lingerie, were made solely to help her become confident before a camera, MSNBC said. But prosecutors said the voice of James Cummings on the tapes giving instructions on what to expose and touch gave the impression there was more than an innocent home video involved.
The tapes were seized during an October 2001 search, when deputies got an anonymous tip about the Website, and James Cummings under questioning said he took "some pictures that may have crossed the line but that he didn't post them," MSNBC added.
The couple's attorney told MSNBC they have a good chance of prevailing on appeal, but whether they do appeal depends on a public defender, since the couple is broke. "They were unable to finish paying my fees," said David Dunigan, "and I only continued (through the trial) because I felt I had a duty to the court.”
