Child Pornography

A Carroll County man pleaded guilty Monday to distributing child pornography after he attempted to provide more than 900,000 videos and images to an undercover federal officer, some of which documented toddlers being sexually abused by adults, the Maryland U.S. attorney's office announced Tuesday. Brian Furches, 37, of Manchester, entered the plea after he attempted to share the images with the officer on Nov. 27 last year, according to a release from the prosecutor's office. The undercover officer downloaded about 471 files of child pornography, a small fraction of the more than 2 million images and videos Furches had amassed since 1995, officials said.

ANNAPOLIS -- Possession of child pornography would be illegal in Maryland under legislation the General Assembly enacted yesterday.The legislation, aimed at consumers rather than sellers, would make it a misdemeanor to "knowingly" possess films, videotapes or photographs of children under 16 engaged in sexual acts.However, parents could have nude photographs of children, as long as the children are not engaged in sexual conduct or sadomasochistic acts.Sen. Norman R. Stone Jr., a Baltimore County Democrat, has been trying for three years to pass child pornography legislation, but his bills have died in the House Judiciary Committee.

A Middle River couple were charged with distributing and promoting child pornography after both were identified in videos participating in the sexual abuse of children, Baltimore County police said Monday. John Nicklas, 34, and Shannon Leigh Honea, 26, of the 9700 block of Conmar Road, were arrested Thursday and charged with filming, distributing and promoting child pornography. Police said there were several unidentified victims, ranging in age from about 2 to 13, and are asking for the public's help in finding those children and any others who may have been abused or exploited.

A 59-year-old Anne Arundel County man pleaded guilty this week to child pornography charges in federal court, the U.S. attorney's office announced yesterday. Danny Fleck of Severn pleaded guilty late Thursday to one count of sexually exploiting a minor to produce pornographic pictures and one count of attempting to transport child pornography. According to the statement of facts presented to the court at his guilty plea, Fleck coerced young girls to engage in sexually explicit conduct in order to create pictures and a video.

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court salvaged a federal law against child pornography yesterday but gave it a narrow reading that may make it harder for prosecutors to win convictions.A federal appeals court had struck down the law, saying Congress had not narrowed its scope enough to save it under the Constitution. The law, dating to 1977, makes it a crime to send or receive sexually explicit items that show youths who are under age 18.But the Supreme Court disagreed, voting 7-2 to uphold the law as well as the conviction of a Los Angeles dealer in those materials.

CHICAGO - Attorney General John Ashcroft reacted grimly to the Supreme Court's decision striking down the Child Pornography Prevention Act. He said the ruling makes prosecuting child pornographers "immeasurably more difficult" and urged Congress to pass "stronger measures to fight child pornography." The conservative American Center for Law and Justice charged that the verdict "gives pornographers the green light to engage in Internet porn and fails to close a legal loophole at the expense of our children."

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton rebuked the Justice Department yesterday for retreating from a wider legal definition of child pornography and ordered Attorney General Janet Reno to move "promptly" to draw up new legislation to ensure that federal law reaches all forms of child pornography.The White House was caught off guard in September when U.S. Solicitor General Drew S. Days III advised the Supreme Court that the administration was backing away from an earlier, stricter definition of child pornography.

WESTMINSTER - A 42-year-old Finksburg resident and Baltimore city police officer convicted in September of two child pornography charges was placed on probation before judgment Tuesday in Carroll Circuit Court.If Robert A. Jones of the 1400 block of Algonquin Court successfully completes his 36 months of probation, the conviction will be wiped from his record.Jones was found guilty of one count of distributing child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography with intent to distribute by Circuit Judge Raymond E. Beck after a two-day trial.

Three people have been indicted by an Anne Arundel County grand jury on unrelated child pornography charges. The grand jury indicted last week Shannon M. Jones, 20, of the 7900 block of Telegraph Road in Severn in an alleged incident with a 16-year-old. She is accused of getting the girl drunk at her home, removing her clothes and having sexual contact with her. A spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office said that a male friend of Jones' took photographs of the two females in the shower and that the two adults had allegedly downloaded pornographic photographs of children from the Internet.

A Westminster man accused of enticing a teen-age boy to make a pornographic videotape last year is being held in lieu of $25,000 bail at Carroll County Detention Center.Michael J. Potts, 21, was arrested Tuesday on charges of soliciting a minor for the purpose of child pornography, promoting and distributing child pornography, and two counts of conspiring to make a pornographic video and distribute it.The boy, then 14, is not being named.In charging documents, police said the videotape, which was turned over to them by the boy's parents, was made about April 1, 1996, at a South Court Street residence in Westminster.