The FBI's new child porn investigative technique...
CNET notes that the FBI is using an interesting new investigative technique to crack down on child porn: posting links to gibberish files labeled as child porn, then raiding the homes of anyone who clicked on them. The technique raises obvious questions about entrapment, given that under the same logic, the government could e-mail you links promising you narcotics, then kick your door down without you having actually purchased or consumed any.
Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University, was raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink. Federal agents knocked on the door around 7 a.m., falsely claiming they wanted to talk to Vosburgh about his car. Once he opened the door, they threw him to the ground outside his house and handcuffed him.
Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison.
Lawyers defending Vosburgh have not used entrapment as a defense, given such defenses "usually do not get very far," according to one attorney. In Vosburgh's case he added to his problems by destroying a hard drive and thumb drive just as FBI agents were about to raid his home. He was found to possess a hard drive with two grainy thumbnail images of naked female minors.
