Child Pornograpny Defense

Our Child Pornography Defense Practice

Allegations of possession or distribution of child pornography, child sex abuse or molestation or internet sex crimes can permanently destroy your reputation among family, friends, neighbors and colleagues. In addition, these crimes carry extremely stiff penalties, including lengthy prison terms (in some cases, statutory mandatory minimum terms), the potential for financial restitution to victims, and up to lifetime post conviction supervision. We will work hard to keep your case out of the media. But we always concentrate on examining and evaluating the government's evidence with the ultimate goal of minimizing our clients' exposure to the harsher penalties of prison, burdensome registration requirements and lengthy supervisory periods.

We carefully investigate, therefore, the facts surrounding your case, exploring all potential avenues of defense. In internet cases, we always employ the services of computer forensics experts. Our experts conduct painstaking evaluations of the computer hard drives allegedly involved in possessing or distributing child pornography. With the help of our computer experts, we can evaluate for ourselves the nature of the images alleged to be on our clients' computer hard drives. We sometimes disagree with the number of alleged images, for example. In some instances, we may actually disagree with the nature of those images, and whether they are pornographic in nature, or whether they depict actual children. It is possible that a forensic evaluation of the hard drive may lead us to believe that our clients were unaware that images of child pornography were on their computers, or that the evidence does not clearly prove that our client was the person downloading those images.

-- File sharing programs may have downloaded illegal images without your knowledge

-- A spam e-mail or computer virus may have placed unwanted pictures on your hard drive

-- Someone else could have used your computer to download illegal material

It is important in these cases to remember that you have no public or civic duty to talk to investigators who may simply arrive at your door for a "knock and talk." They may talk to you legally, even without a search or arrest warrant, but only if you agree and consent to talk to them. You do not have to and it is unwise to do so without consulting an experienced attorney. In many of these cases, the only conclusive evidence linking our clients to the images on their computers - especially when more than one person had access to that computer - is our client's statements to law enforcement.

Our goal in all possession or distribution of child pornography cases is, first, to examine thoroughly the government's evidence and the strength of its case; second, to maximize any evidence in mitigation of these charges. Finally, we work hard to develop facts which will reduce our client's exposure to harsh penalties to the lowest possible level. Whether images appeared on your computer without your knowledge or you made an error in judgment, you should not have to spend the rest of your life paying for it.

Contact an Experienced St. Louis and Metro East Child Pornography Defense Lawyer

We work in state court and in federal court, in Missouri and in Illinois. That means we handle cases in the Missouri counties of St. Louis County, Jefferson County, Lincoln County, St. Charles County, and Franklin County, as well as in federal court in the Eastern District of Missouri in both the Eastern Division, in St. Louis, and in the Southeastern Division, in Cape Girardeau.

We also work in Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois, as well as in federal court in the Southern District of Illinois in E. St. Louis and in Benton.

If you are contacted by law enforcement wanting to question you about a case of this nature, it is in your best interests to contact an experienced attorney immediately. For a free consultation to discuss the charges against you and potential strategies in your defense, please contact us at 314-480-3389 or 866-373-3720 toll-free.