Lawmakers combat child porn

Clint Sloan Staff Writer

Ada — Rickey Prince, 52, sexually molested two little girls in Ada, and was charged with rape. When law enforcement officers searched his residence, they were disgusted at what they found.

“He would display child pornography to these victims,” said Jim Tillison, Pontotoc County assistant district attorney.

Officers found child pornography on Prince’s computer hard drive and two CDs – including both photographs and videos, Tillison said. Two months ago, Prince was convicted of rape and possession of child pornography and sentenced to 490 years in prison.

Tillison said the case underscores a problem affecting not just Ada, but the entire state of Oklahoma.

“What we see in many molestation cases like this is the use of pornography,” Tillison said. “You do find evidence of one when you have the other.”

While Prince was tried and convicted, others get away with such crimes. To combat the problem, some Oklahoma lawmakers are trying to enact a harsher penalty for transmitting child pornography via any electronic device.

Senate Bill 1020, authored by Sen. Jonathan Nichols (R-Norman) and co-authored by Sen. Debbe Leftwich (R-Oklahoma City), states that “no person shall knowingly transmit child pornography by use of the Internet or by any electronic, photo-electronic or photo-optical system, including, but not limited to, transmission by wire, cable or wireless means.”

The measure passed the Senate today in a 45-0 vote. It now heads to the governor where he is expected to sign it into law.

A person found guilty of violating this felony offense could be fined $10,000 and sentenced to a prison term ranging from five years to life.

This would be harsher than current law, which authorizes a prison term up to 10 years. In addition, the bill encompasses newer forms of transmission, including many electronic devices and the Internet.

Leftwich said she co-authored the bill because she wanted to send a clear message to those transmitting child pornography.

“We are going to catch you, and when we catch you, this is what’s going to happen to you,” Leftwich said. “That could be a huge deterrent hopefully, and I don’t think we could do enough to protect our children.”

The proposed law would make it illegal to “knowingly” transmit child pornography, which might incline some defendants to claim they did not know they were doing so. But Leftwich said that defense alone would be unlikely to work in court.

“That would be awfully hard to prove,” Leftwich said. “They are going to have to have some kind of evidence to back that up.”

Leftwich said the law would not only try to curtail child pornography, it might become an important tool in preventing child molestation cases.

“You hear stories all the time about pedophiles, and a lot of times it starts with people looking at child pornography,” Leftwich said. “A lot of times you see people do that before they actually do something to a child.”

Rep. Randy Terrill (R-Moore), the House author of SB 1020, said he has two small children and knows the importance of protecting them from predators.

“It’s an area that’s pretty important to public safety, and it’s an area that I care a lot about for obvious reasons,” Terrill said.

When the measure was taken up in conference committee, Terrill hoped to add provisions to deal with a new trend that has some lawmakers worried.

“The bill is going to end up dealing with not only the transmission of child pornography by electronic or wireless means, but probably addressing some aspects of a new phenomenon called “sexting,” the transmission of images over cell phones,” Terrill said.

Members of the committee agreed that “sexting” was included in the “transmission through wireless means” language.

It seems most public officials agree that this is needed in Oklahoma, and hope it will protect children in the future.

“There’s a good justification for the bill,” Tillison said. “You’re talking about protecting children that are 4 years old to adolescence.”

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