Criminal law, Politics, Society

Manassas Police Refuse To Execute Warrant To Photograph Teen’s Erect Penis

94px-Manassas_Police_BadgePaul EbertIn a clear victory for both the public and basic notions of decency, the Manassas City Police have announced that they will not execute the abusive warrant discussed yesterday to force a 17-year-old boy to be photographed with an erect penis — including the authority to force an erection with the administration of drugs if the boy did not “cooperate.” However, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson is still pursing the teen for two major felonies for sending his 15-year-old girlfriend an explicit video. There is still no word from Paul B. Ebert, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Prince William County (right).

As we discussed yesterday, Richardson charged the teen with manufacturing and distributing child pornography. The girlfriend sent him pictures earlier but she is not being charged. The girlfriend’s mother called police and insists that he was repeatedly told to stop sending the images. Detective David E. Abbott, the lead investigator on the case, has refused to return calls. However, the case began with the girlfriend, not the defendant, sending photos of herself to the boy. Yet, she has not be charged. Instead, he was served with petitions from juvenile court in early February, but not arrested. The case however was dismissed due to an error by prosecutors. They then however obtained new charges and a search warrant. They then arrested him and secured this absurd warrant. The defense attorney says that Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson told her that her client must either plead guilty or police would obtain another search warrant “for pictures of his erect penis.” If that is the case, this is even more serious since it sounds like this abusive warrant was used to try to pressure a plea. Richardson then appeared in court to try to stop the teen from traveling until he submitted to the degrading photographs.

The teen is now set for a trial on July 15th but the police were inundated with angry complaints by the public from around the world. The boy had already been forced to be photographed in the nude including his genitals but Richardson demanded that he either plead guilty or go through the added trauma of being forced to have an erection and then photographed.

The police department issued a statement that “It is not the policy of the Manassas City Police or the Commonwealth Attorney’s Office to authorize invasive search procedures of suspects in cases of this nature and no such procedures have been conducted in this case.” That still leaves the question of Richardson’s insistence that the teen be forced to do precisely what both the police and prosecutors say is outside of their policy. There was virtually no value to the pictures given the facts of this case beyond tormenting this teenager. It is not just unprofessional and potentially unethical (if used just to force a plea) but downright creepy. Had the public not reacted to this abuse, this grotesque scene would have unfolded as planned by Richardson (who objected to the boy leaving the state with family before he was forced through this procedure).

While Clairborne Richardson has been listed as the lead prosecutor in this case, once again, Paul Ebert clearly deserves much of the criticism for failing to properly supervise his subordinate and his silence in the matter is deafening. I have previously criticized Ebert for his lack of prosecutorial discretion in the Kevin Kelly case.

The entire heavy-handed prosecution of this teenager should be reexamined and dropped in favor of noncriminal actions. Moreover, if the reported facts are proven true, Richardson’s continuation as a prosecutor needs to be reviewed. Unfortunately, prosecutorial abuse is something that we have routinely encountered. It is a problem because prosecutors are rarely punished. However, this abuse involved a minor and justifiably brought the entire office into disrepute. There must also be a review of the magistrate who signed this abusive warrant which now even the police will not execute. The conduct of the prosecutors and the magistrate strike me as a far greater menace than these two kids sending each other explicit pictures and videos. Indeed, the lack of any response thus far from Ebert should again cause Prince William voters to examine his role and failure to exercise a modicum of control over his prosecutors.

Source: ABA Journal

68 thoughts on “Manassas Police Refuse To Execute Warrant To Photograph Teen’s Erect Penis”

  1. Oh Lordy Max! Your video about parenting is hysterical and oh so true, regarding guns that is. 😉

  3. Enfants and children are always flashing their private parts toward one another. Is there a statute in Virginia which says how old one must be before this is no longer permissible and then another one which says that no one under a certain age can be shown a weenie and then another one which says taht there is a magic age for being able to display the weenie? And then another one which says display in private to an adult but not to the public? Jeso.

  5. Men who shave their heads like that perp prosecutor in the photo above are often pedophiles. But there is an issue here on this legal blog on this legal topic that is overlooked. It is one thing to make some person stand in a line up. It is another to make them speak or testify. Enforcing an erection in a hospital so that the state can take photos to show the victim or compare to other photos is a violation of his right of silence. If a boner is not a matter of expression then nothing is.

  8. If the mom didn’t want her daughter sexting, then she should have TAKEN HER PHONE AWAY, or given her an emergency phone without photo or texting capabilities.

    This is a parenting issue.

  9. If this child was forced against his will to be photographed naked, isn’t that the manufacture of child pornography?

    The laws have not caught up to sexting. I do not believe 2 teenagers sexting constitutes child pornography, as long as the images stay between those 2. However, in the age of the internet, it is irresponsible, foolish behavior. If those images had been uploaded to the internet, then any adults possessing them would be guilty of child porn.

    I have heard of this before, where teenagers who sext each other end up being convicted, and having to register as sex offenders. That is not the spirit of the law.

    Good for the Manasas City Police for refusing to execute the warrant.

  13. Nick
    “but his strongest demographic is 72% support by Muslims.”
    = = =
    Revelations of this past week will change this figure dramatically.

  14. If you live in that town in Virginia then you would be wise to post photos of all of the local pedophiles in the kid’s bathrooms at all the schools with a Watch Out! admonition. That photo up above in the article here is definitely of a pedophile. He is a disgrace to the human race and the humane society needs to take him in hand and put him on a leash. Wants a photo of a kid’s weenie for court purposes? Yeah.

  15. LOL, Dredd. I was thinking about the same weird fixation with Obama on a thread bout penis pics.

  16. Simms, you’re entirely correct. If the girl is a minor, her mother could have taken her phone from her as well. If she needed one in an emergency, and I know I grew up without that need, she could have purchased an inexpensive, emergency only, phone.

  17. What is it with the obsession over stiffies and Obama by closet wrong-wingers and Spinny and the Jets?

  18. In typical local government fashion, it is predictable they will fight on to the bitter end after an initial deflection. Cannot lose face is the motto.

    And they mistakenly believe it will cement what they believe is the truth by continuing. It seldom works but as long as they have someone to persecute that doesn’t have the power to resist they will usually press on. Furthermore, even if they receive a judgment against them and are forced to pay up these types never blame themselves for what happened, citing it was the court’s fault.

  19. Simms, good point about the ability to block the messages. I don’t have a phone smart enough to do it, or it can I don’t know how. 🙂 Maybe mom was trying to stop what she saw as an abusive kid? Back to my original point. There’s a lot we don’t know about this for throwing blame or not except to those who got the abusive warrant.

  20. The girl’s mother is the source of this abuse. The cops acting unprofessional thereafter is evidently what we pay police to do in the modern era.

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