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prevent-abuse-now.com
© N. Faulkner 1996-2006
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Law Page Four, Section II: Archive of Court Rulings
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This information may be extracted, edited, and/or paraphrased from government publications.
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Contents
Page Two, Section II: Archive of Court Rulings
 U.S. Judge Backs Law Against Child Pornography (8/97)
Church, U.S. priest ordered to pay $120 million (7/97)
New Jersey Holds Pedophile Wife Responsible to Warn (5/97)
US Appeals Court Upholds Child Porn Law (02/99)
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U.S. Judge Backs Law Against Child Pornography
Source: Reuter News, August 13, 1997
Excerpts:
SAN FRANCISCO - A federal judge has ruled that a law outlawing computer-generated child pornography is constitutional.
The Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996 expanded the definition of child pornography, outlawing "any visual depiction" that "is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct."
Judge Conti said the law was enacted specifically to combat the use of computer technology to produce pornography that conveys the impression that children were used in the photographs or images.
The Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing the adult entertainment industry, joined several other people, in an attempt to say the law would ban "a wide array of sexually-explicit, non-obscene material that has serious literary, artistic, political and scientific value."
According to Judge Conti: "The court finds that the Child Pornography Prevention Act is not overbroad. It specifies that only materials that do not use adults and that appear to be child pornography, even if they are digitally produced, are prohibited. It is highly unlikely that the types of valuable works plaintiffs fear will be outlawed under the Child Pornography Prevention Act -- depictions used by the medical profession to treat adolescent disorders, adaptations of sexual works like 'Romeo and Juliet' and artistically-valued drawings and sketches of young adults engaging in passionate behavior -- will be treated as 'criminal contraband'."
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U.S. Appeals Court Upholds Washington's Megan's Law
Church, U.S. Priest Ordered to Pay $120 million
Source: Reuter News, June 24, 1997
Excerpts:
DALLAS - The Roman Catholic diocese of Dallas was ordered Thursday to pay $120 million in damages to 10 former altar boys and the parents of another who were sexually abused by a Catholic priest.
The victims included Jay Lemberger, who committed suicide in 1992 at the age of 20.
"My son was murdered by the Dallas diocese because they let Rudy Kos into their regime and they let him get away with this abuse," said Pat Lemberger, the boy's father.
The diocese was ordered to pay about $102 million in actual damages and $18 million in punitive damages. The boys, who now range in age from 18 to early 30s, were each awarded between $7.4 and $13.2 million. It was the largest cash penalty imposed against the Catholic church in a sexual abuse case.
The jury said the diocese was guilty of gross negligence, malice, conspiracy and fraud in failing to stop Reverend Rudolph Kos from abusing the children over an 11-year period ending in 1992, and in covering up evidence when the victims came forward.
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New Jersey Holds Pedophile Wife Responsible to Warn
May 22, 1997
Excerpts:
A New Jersey state appeals court decision said a woman could be sued for not warning neighbors about her husband's pedophilia.
A three-judge Appellate Court panel said that if the wife knew about her husband's conduct -- or was aware of any history of child molestation on his part -- she had a duty to protect the two teen-age girls who were regular visitors to their home.
Although this was not a criminal case, the judges relied in part upon Megan's Law, which calls for community notification when habitual convicted sex offenders move into a neighborhood, to support their contention that an individual's privacy is less important than the protection of children.
The parents of two girls (ages 12 and 15) in Cumberland County sued a couple fictitiously identified as "John" and "Mary." John was accused of sexually assaulting the sisters when they would come over to ride and tend John and Mary's horses.
"John" pleaded guilty to criminal charges of endangering the welfare of minors and was sentenced to 18 months in prison.
In the subsequent civil suit, the court awarded each child a $125,000 judgment against John but threw out the case against his wife. The appeals court disagreed, finding that if the girls' parents could prove Mary knew what her husband was up to or what his history was, she had a duty to protect the children. It is unclear whether John had ever been convicted or charged with a sex crime prior to the incidents involving the two girls.
The appeals court sent the case back to Superior Court to determine how much Mary knew about John's history and his activities with the girls.
"Mary could have discharged her duty by seeing that the girls were not invited to ride or care for the horses, or by remaining present throughout their visits, or by any number of other steps less drastic than full disclosure to all neighbors and friends,'' the court ruled. But the panel said an explicit warning might be necessary if that were the only way of preventing harm.
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US Appeals Court Upholds Child Porn Law
Source: Yahoo, February 1, 1999
Excerpts:
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - An appeals court has upheld a federal law that
makes it illegal to possess computer images of children engaging in
sex, despite whether the images show a real child or an altered
image. U.S. Attorney Jay McCloskey said Friday it was the first time
an appeals court has ruled on the validity of the Child Pornography
Protection Act of 1996. The law targets computer technology that can
be used to alter an innocent picture of a child into a picture of a
child engaged in a sexually explicit act. The decision, made
Wednesday by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals, overturned a lower
court ruling that had declared the law unconstitutionally vague.
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