Law enforcement agencies that investigate child pornography cases face special technological challenges when tracking the distribution of contraband on the Internet, and then in building a case against a specific defendant. A case in point is “Dreamboard”, an online bulletin board that advertised and distributed child pornography. Dreamboard users employed…
The United States Attorney’s Offices for the Southern District of New York and the Northern District of Georgia recently announced three indictments charging several defendants with, among other things, computer hacking, theft and fraud. [US v. Shalon, No. 15-cr-00333 (S.D.N.Y.); US v. Murgio, No. 15-cr-00769 (S.D.N.Y.); and US v. Shalon,…
It has been 20 years since New Jersey enacted Megan’s Law, which require convicted sex offenders to register with local authorities in the community where they live. Whether and to what extent the law has accomplished anything remains a hotly debated subject. Briefly, the law requires, among other things, that…
Earlier this year, the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in Paroline v. United States. The decision instructs district courts to adopt a common sense approach in computing restitution awards in child pornography cases. Paroline pleaded guilty to possessing images of child pornography downloaded from the internet, which included…
In 1997 and 1998, an eight-year-old girl known as “Amy” was sexually abused and raped repeatedly by her uncle. Amy’s uncle received a custodial term of 10 years, and was ordered to pay $6,325.00 in restitution. The assaults were photographed, and the photos were placed on the Internet and spread…