Federal Prisoner in Virginia Convicted on Fresh Kiddie Porn Charges After Drawing His Own
In a stunning example of government overreach, a federal judge in Virginia handed an additional child pornography conviction to a prisoner at the Federal Correctional Complex in Petersburg on August 7, 2023—not for possessing images of a real child victim, but for drawing on pictures of children to depict them involved in sexual activity.
It is unclear how any harm was suffered by the children whose photos were altered in the privacy of his cell by Jesse Fernando Perez, 36. But the federal court for the Eastern District of Virginia found him guilty of “producing and possessing obscene images of children,” according to a statement from the office of U.S. Attorney Jessica D. Aber.
Perez’s attorney framed the question before the Court to ask whether the government “may constitutionally regulate what a person writes in a diary.” To that, concluded Federal Public Defender Joseph S. Camden, “[t]he statute under which Mr. Perez is being prosecuted purports to criminalize private obscenity and is unconstitutional.”
Judge Roderick C. Young was unmoved by that argument, however, handing a guilty verdict to Perez, who was already serving a 10-year term for a child pornography conviction. At sentencing on January 18, 2024, he ordered Perez to serve an additional 15 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release. Perez was also ordered to pay $200 in special assessments. See: United States v. Perez, USDC (E.D. Va.), Case No. 3:23-cr-00019.
Additional source: Daily Beast
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Related legal case
United States v. Perez
| Year | 2023 |
|---|---|
| Cite | USDC (E.D. Va.), Case No. 3:23-cr-00019 |
| Level | District Court |