In South Carolina, U.S. Senate candidate Alvin Greene has been hit with a felony indictment for showing pornography to a South Carolina college student. The grand jury issued the indictment for disseminating, procuring or promoting obscenity. As expressed earlier, I have serious reservations about this charge. He was also given a misdemeanor charge of communicating obscene materials to a person without consent.
The facts of this incident remain a bit sketchy, though it remains great news for Incumbent Sen. Jim DeMint. 
Greene, an unemployed veteran who lives with his parents, was a surprise winner in the primary over former four-term state lawmaker Vic Rawl, 64. He was arrested in November and charged with showing obscene Internet photos to a University of South Carolina student. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to five years in prison.
He has refused to comment on the charges, though he reportedly showed the woman the pictures and wanted to go up to her room. I am quite surprised to see such a matter result in a formal criminal charge, let alone a felony. If the individual is not distributing pornography or making threats, prosecutors usually treat this as creepy or boorish behavior. Obscenity remains an often ambiguous concept in criminal codes. Reports indicate that Camille McCoy, a 19-year-old rising sophomore, said that Greene sat down next to her in a computer lab and asked her to look at his screen which showed a porn site. That is usually not enough for a criminal charge. Moreover, it is hard to imagine that the police could show for sure which image was showing on the screen at the time. There are often complaints of people watching pornography on airplanes or college computer labs. Such conduct can result in expulsion from a public area or even a school, but rarely rises to the level of a criminal charge.
It is not clear how they will prove the specific image shown on the computer, though they can likely show what images will viewed on the given computer during that period. If he did in fact invite the person to look at the images, there is a question of presumed consent. The person had to actively turn to look at the image. This would appear to be the type of case the defense counsel warn their clients about in terms of publicity: one week on the cover of Time, next week doing Time. Publicity in such a matter can draw prosecutors to a case that would be ordinarily dropped. I believe he would have some strong defenses at both trial and, if needed, on appeal to such a charge.
Source: CNN
Maybe someone covered this before but this is how to disable those popups.
http://www.blork.org/blorkblog/2008/03/31/how-to-disable-snap-shots-on-blogs/
No ones vote is safe when electronic voting is used.
It never occured to me before but right wing trolls are basically ratfuckers.
yissil,
I remember Creep and Mr. Segretti very clearly, but this case does seem more like your first point, ballot fraud. There is no way that Mr. Greene got a solid majority of the vote without ballot fraud or an orchestrated Republican voter raid on the Democratic primary. Now, if I could only prove it.
It always seemed like straight out ballot fraud (if that’s a word) to me.
It also smells to me like a racist Republican ratfuck.
(The Nixon Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), a private non-governmental campaign entity, used funds from its coffers to pay for, and later cover up, “dirty tricks” performed against opponents by Richard Nixon’s employee, Donald Segretti. Segretti famously coined the term ‘ratfucking’ for recruiting conservative members to infiltrate opposition groups to undermine the effectiveness of such opposition.)
Wikipedia “Dirty Tricks)
rafflaw
1, August 13, 2010 at 7:56 pm
Notwithstanding where Greene’s entry fee came from, the votes that he got while having no ads, no web site and doing no appearances makes my stink-o-meter go off. The Republican Party is up to their necks in fraud. It would take the Justice Department to look into it because South Carolina has no incentive.
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HenMan
1, August 13, 2010 at 9:34 pm
Several people asked: how did he get elected and who voted for him? Maybe the answer is DIEBOLD. In South Carolina that might be all you need.
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I’ve never looked at his rather strange election from this viewpoint … it does make a certain kind of sense,
Several people asked: how did he get elected and who voted for him? Maybe the answer is DIEBOLD. In South Carolina that might be all you need.
Notwithstanding where Greene’s entry fee came from, the votes that he got while having no ads, no web site and doing no appearances makes my stink-o-meter go off. The Republican Party is up to their necks in fraud. It would take the Justice Department to look into it because South Carolina has no incentive.
Given that the purpose of running a Democrat against Jim DeMint is basically to have a warm body in case of a scandal, how big of a Jim DeMint scandal would it take for Alvin Greene to win now? I’m thinking something on the order of sacrificing babies in a satanic ritual…
Greene apparently used his own money based on a state investigation of the matter. That he looked like a deer in the headlights on his first national TV appearance is not surprising to me.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/10/alvin-greene-paid-senate-_n_641691.html
“Greene had reported just over $1,000 in monthly income on court paperwork and was appointed a public defender to represent him on a pending obscenity charge. His meager finances raised questions about how he paid the required $10,440 fee to run as a U.S. Senate candidate.
But when state agents reviewed Greene’s bank accounts, they found an October deposit of nearly $6,000, which was Greene’s military exit pay, and about $3,000 deposited early this year from state and federal tax refunds, Lloyd said.
The records matched Greene’s story that the 32-year-old candidate, who has been collecting unemployment benefits since he left the military in August, was able to afford the fee because he saved his money and lived frugally.”
Yissil, The SCOTUS vacated some of the charges against him and remanded the case back to the 11th Circuit but it’s my understanding that he is still in jail awaiting their decision and I believe that the charges vacated do not constitute all of the charges against him. If there’s further info I too would like to know about it.
Kagen, as Solicitor General argued for leaving the charges stand.
http://www.donsiegelman.org/Pages/press_10/Jun_29_10.htmlSCRUSHY, “RICHARD
SIEGELMAN, DON E. V. UNITED STATES
The petitions for writs of certiorari are granted. The
judgment is vacated, and the cases are remanded to the United
States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit for further
consideration in light of Skilling v. United States, 561 U.S.”
addiction Analyst—I completely agree. Everything about this man and his election is bizarre. His appearance on the Keith Olberman program was that of a man who had been sedated and was struggling to clear his head. He seems like a man who is being used and is not fully lucid. I hope this is not so.
There is something unreal about Alvin Green’s story from the beginning and it never stops being a mystery. Where did the money come from to run for office, where did the votes come from and now where did these felony charges come from. I would like to see someone, with the money and interest, come to this man’s aid and expose who is using him as their political pawn.
For some reason I thought Don Siegleman was out of jail. It’s really astonishing that he’s not.
Has anyone actually figured out how and why Alvin Green got nominated and elected? Has anyone even investigated?
Instead a felony charge for showing pornography to a college student.
“South Carolina is too small to be a country and too large to be an insane asylum.” — James L. Petigru
The South Carolina Democratic Party breathes a sigh of relief.
This is bad news for DeMint.
So this makes that saying come true,about prosecutors being able to even indicte a ham sandwich.
Another political prisoner. Maybe he and Govenor Don Siegelman can become pen pals. Silly me, I just assumed that the first thing the Obama Justice Department would do is get Paul Minor and Don Siegelman out of jail. Taking another look at the Leonard Peltier case would have been a grace note I’d have appreciated too. It could have been worse though. Mr. Green could have been found hanging in a shed from suicide or died of drowning in his hot tub.
Election Year Politics make the best charges criminally.
For all of you Lady-folk considering to coming to Texas or living here. You may not possess more than 5 self pleasuring devices or you too have committed a crime against the states morality clause. Please dispose of in a safe manner all over the legal limit of 5…..
Maybe he just wanted her to explain the pictures to him?