A law aimed at blocking Internet child porn has caught a Ferris State University student with his pants down - he faces time in the federal freezer for taking erotic photographs of his 17-year-old girlfriend, even though she was of legal age to have sex and consented to the photographs.
Patrick Corp pleaded guilty last Tuesday to possessing pictures which involved the use of a minor in sexually explicit conduct, an offense carrying a maximum five years in prison. Assistant U.S. Attorney Richard Murray says that federal sentencing guidelines make some time behind bars "pretty much certain," according to the Grand Rapids Press.
The 24-year-old student was charged under a year-old stature making it against the law to create or possess child porn if the pictures were produced with materials transported in interstate commerce. Prosecutors applied it to Corp, the Detroit News says, because the photographic paper used to print the images was made outside the state of Michigan.
Corp took the exposed film to a Big Rapids pharmacy, which called the authorities about the images. The government ultimately agreed to drop three other charges in exchange for the guilty plea.
Corp's attorney, Donald Garthe, says it's ironic that Corp's girlfriend was old enough to have sex legally but still not old enough legally to be photographed erotically. Court papers obtained by the Detroit News say she told authorities she posed voluntarily and did not want Corp prosecuted.
Garthe told the paper the photographs were kept in Corp's home in a photo album. "The (law) is aimed at adults who prey on young children and disseminate the information over the Internet," he says. "I'm sure the law was not intended" for the Big Rapids couple.
Corp could have faced ten years on the other charges and pleaded guilty in a deal because of that potential penalty, Garthe says. But Garthe is also considering an appeal of the law's constitutionality.
Even the judge says the case is "an awful" stretch. "It would not hurt anyone to get that clarified," said U.S. District Judge Gordon Quist of Corp's contention that he didn't know the photographic paper used was made outside Michigan. And the prosecutor is said to have admitted there was no evidence Corp planned disseminating the photographs by mail or online.
But Murray also says once the image was made, the girl had no control over them - despite giving her consent.
"We're taking into account the interests of society," he tells the News. "Child pornography in and of itself is bad. If it does get circulated, it could damage other children by feeding this appetite. ... Once it's on the Internet, it lives forever."
