Patrick Naughton \nLOS ANGELES - Former Internet wunderkind Patrick Naughton was freed on bail Wednesday, and the federal judge who freed him says last week's 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling throwing out a part of the Child Pornography Prevention Act which applied in his case might mean a new trial for Naughton.
He was convicted of possessing child pornography last Thursday, a day before the circuit court ruled that child pornography containing either fake images of children or pornography using adults posing as children was not illegal. But the appeals court upheld parts of the law in which real children were used.
Federal judge Edward Rafeedie had first refused to reinstate Naughton's bail, saying images seized from his laptop computer when he was arrested in September had real child porn. But on Wednesday, Rafeedie ruled the appeals court ruling makes his release on bail - while receiving "intensive supervision," according to the Associated Press - mandatory.
The same jury which convicted Naughton of possessing child porn deadlocked on the two counts - soliciting sex with a minor over the Internet and interstate travel for sex with a minor - related to the reason Naughton was arrested in the first place. The AP says the new bail order also orders Naughton to have no unsupervised contact with minors and no use of the Internet except for work.
Naughton tells the AP he's glad to be free before Christmas, but the conditions of his release mean he won't go home to Seattle or to New York to see his family.
His attorney, Donald Marks, tells the AP he'll argue for a new trial on the grounds that the 9th Circuit Court ruling makes child porn laws under which Naughton was convicted unconstitutional.
