A 76 year old man from Hugo has been charged with possession of Child Pornography. This case apparently involved a long-standing Five year investigation by the Postal Inspector, ranging from California to Grand Forks, North Dakota, to Hugo, in Washington County, a suburb of Minneapolis/St. Paul, the Twin Cities. Criminal defense attorneys, probation officers, police, and prosecutors have noted that the number of people charged with Possession or Distribution of Child Pornography has been rising steadily in recent years. Because illegal images can be easily traded or obtained via email and website, the increase in the number of people charged with these Sex Crimes is largely due to the internet, including high-speed internet connections enabling fast downloads of multiple images or videos at the same time.
Many people are being sent to prison for these alleged Child Porn crimes or other internet sex crimes in Minnesota. Some are guilty and some are not. Some sex crimes defendants did not even know the offending images were on their computers, because a roommate had downloaded them without telling the defendant. Keller Law Offices has pioneered many innovative defenses to internet sex crimes including possession or distribution of child pornography. We have used expert witnesses to show that the default settings in file sharing programs such as Limewire may cause unintended download of prohibited child pornography images or videos when the computer was, in fact, trying to download ONLY adult pornography, which is perfectly legal of course. Criminal Defense attorney Max Keller has led the charge by challenging the vagueness of the Minnesota child pornography statute AND also challenging the fact the law lacks an intent requirement.
