Streaming videos, using webcams and sharing links makes proving possession harder today than when the law was written Fort Collins Coloradoan
As many as 40 child pornography cases come through the Larimer County District Attorney’s Office every year.
Most of them end up in front of Brian Hardouin.
“There will be certain images that we come across in this work that will never leave my mind,” the Larimer County deputy district attorney said.
Hardouin said it is both a curse — those images will stay with him for the rest of his life — and motivation to strive to do better, which includes working to close a loophole when it comes to prosecuting child porn cases.
“(The law) hasn’t really been updated in probably 15 years,” he said. “And that was to just update the language to show movies are no longer only on VHS tapes.”
Fast forward to 2020, where streaming videos, using webcams and sharing links are far more common than VHS. But the outdated law means proving possession is a lot more challenging. The challenge has forced some prosecutors to make deals they don’t want to.
“We would make a plea that doesn’t hold him appropriately accountable,” Hardouin said, referring to a case he worked in the last two years. “We were concerned about if it went to a jury trying to prove it under the current possession statute, that the jury could walk him.”
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