Child Pornography Lawyer In Philadelphia
Possessing and Distributing Child Pornography is a grave offense. Unsurprisingly, because the offense is so grave, the consequences can be enormous and debilitating for someone, even if they were unaware the images and videos they possessed depicted minors. The mere accusation of possessing underage porn can ruin marriages and family relationships and cause even your closest friends to turn away from you – whether or not said accusations are true.
In many cases, someone has an image or video of a minor in a compromising position and may not even know it. With the rise of file-sharing applications, such as BitTorrent, uTorrent, and others, a person searching for legal products can stumble onto and download files that contain illegal depictions of minors.
These files can stay on your hard drive, perhaps even shared by your file-sharing application, despite you not knowing their existence. There have even been cases of automatic downloads containing child porn from an untrusted site without the visitor’s knowledge.
At the end of the day, when looking to make a case against you, state and federal prosecutors will not ask whether you knew you had child porn on your computer; they will get a warrant, seize your computer, conduct an analysis, and ask questions later. This means that, regardless of whether you know you have child porn, state and federal prosecutors take this kind of crime seriously and will pursue significant jail time.
Possession vs. Distribution
While there is a distinction between Possessing and Distributing Child Porn, how someone is caught is virtually the same. The FBI has been known to monitor chat rooms, torrents, and even general web traffic for people downloading known images of minors in compromising positions.
While some of these cases wind up in Pennsylvania’s state courts, most of these cases go to Federal Prosecutors, where the penalties are much greater, and prosecutors can use the virtually unlimited resources of the Federal Government to go after you.
The FBI can catch a person either downloading child porn or distributing it. Downloading is less severe than distributing. However, in both of these cases, you are facing significant jail time and Megan’s Law registration for ten years to life.
Call Us Today for a Free Consultation
When accused of possessing or distributing child porn, it is important to choose a Lawyer with significant experience in these matters. The criminal defense attorneys at The Law Offices of Greg Prosmushkin, P.C. have decades of experience handling these cases in Philadelphia Common Pleas Courts and, more importantly, in Federal Court. If you get a call from the FBI or local police about possessing or distributing child porn, call today for a free consultation.