Doe v. Boland, No. 09-4281 (6th Cir. Jan. 19, 2011)
Excerpt from the opinion:
In the course of preparing expert testimony and exhibits for a criminal trial, Dean Boland downloaded images of children from a stock photo website, digitally “morphed” them into pornography, then used the images to help his clients resist child pornography charges in federal and state courts. Boland’s actions, as it turned out, created potential problems of their own. On the criminal side, the government alleged that Boland’s conduct violated federal criminal child pornography laws, leading to a deferred prosecution agreement with him. On the civil side, the one at issue here, the parents of the depicted children found out about the exhibits, prompting them to sue Boland under the civil remedy provisions of the federal child pornography statute. The district court rejected the civil claims as a matter of law, holding that Congress did not intend the law to apply to expert witnesses. The law contains no such exception, however, and no common law exemptions apply in this setting. We reverse the district court’s judgment, remand the case to the district court and allow it to consider other lingering legal defenses in the first instance.
Via How Appealing.
