NYT: Laws Involving Contact With Minors Allow Prosecutors Discretion

NYT: Laws Involving Contact With Minors Allow Prosecutors a Broad Range of Discretion
By ADAM LIPTAK
Published: October 2, 2006

The decision by Representative Mark Foley of Florida to resign after the disclosure of his sexually explicit e-mail and text messaging exchanges with a teenage boy has been followed by a flood of demands from his former Congressional colleagues — Republicans and Democrats alike — that he face “the full weight of the criminal justice system.”

Legal experts consulted yesterday said that weight could be considerable.

Though the messages made public to date stopped short of soliciting sex or proposing an assignation, some were quite graphic and invited the 16-year-old, a former Congressional page, to describe intimate actions....Marjorie Heins, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and the founder of the Free Expression Policy Project, said that prosecutors almost certainly had the legal tools to pursue Mr. Foley....

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But legal experts cautioned that any case against Mr. Foley would involve difficult jurisdictional and constitutional questions. At least four jurisdictions may be implicated: Washington and Florida, where Mr. Foley worked; Louisiana, the page’s home; the federal system; and perhaps others, as information about contacts with other pages emerges....

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A Florida law makes it a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison, to transmit “material harmful to minors by electronic device.” The law defines the material broadly to include descriptions of “nudity, sexual conduct, or sexual excitement.”...And Mr. Foley is not the only person who could possibly face prosecution, Professor Berman said. “IF THERE WERE PEOPLE WHO KNEW ABOUT HIM OR PROTECTED HIM,” he said, “SOME SORT OF COMPLICITY OR CONSPIRACY CHARGE IS CERTAINLY VIABLE.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/02/washington/02legal.html

in my parish a man went to prison for touching a 15 year old's ass through her clothes

if they pretend they can't prosecute him here, then i'll know the fix is in

NOT Louisiana, if he did it FROM Louisiana or to someone in Louisiana, then Louisiana can go after him, but from what I heard on the story, the message was from a DC location to another DC Location. Thus the Jurisdiction over this act is DC. Will the DC courts (Controlled by the GOP nominated Judges) go after Foley? Will the prosecutor, appointed by Bush go after Foley? That is the question.

the instant message i read w. foley getting the teen's dick hard occurred over IM -- i guess i had the wrong impression he had already gone home since he mentions his MOM?

i mention louisiana because another poster here, rgbolen, knows who the teen is and says he was in louisiana

other accounts say the teen was sponsored by turncoat rodney alexander, now a republican from louisiana altho he took funds and campaigning efforts as a democrat, so i tend to give some weight to the gossip

if as you say the entire incident occurred in DC then you are right, he'll go scotfree, he probably will anyway, "they" can do as they like, same as it ever was

To catch a predator stings.. chasing boys how creepy is that ??