If you’re under investigation or have received charges for child pornography, you may benefit from having a defense team on your side. A Phoenix child pornography lawyer from Gurion Legal can advocate for you throughout your case, from start to finish.
Our team has handled many similar cases. We can fight to get your charges dismissed or lowered, so a criminal conviction doesn’t affect you for the rest of your life.
Why Choose Our Attorneys to Handle Your Phoenix Child Pornography Case?
At Gurion Legal, we dedicate our practice to protecting the rights of people up against the criminal justice system. We are committed to providing the best legal counsel for each client who chooses us to represent them.
Our firm has established a reputation as one of the state’s most qualified and respected law firms. This is because we work tirelessly to build strong defenses for our clients. Our team has litigators who aren’t afraid to stand up to the prosecution’s tactics, and our experience helps us navigate through complex legal issues our clients deal with.
When you get arrested or are under investigation for a crime, you can speak to a member of our team during a no-cost consultation. In this meeting, we can explain your legal options and determine if we’re a good fit. If you choose to work with our firm, we can immediately stand by your side through interrogations and speak to involved parties on your behalf.
How Our Child Pornography Attorneys Can Defend You
When you face child pornography charges, the Phoenix child pornography lawyers from our firm can take care of the legal matters. We can give you the confidence you need to get past this difficult time in your life and move forward.
When you choose our team, you can expect us to:
- Speak on your behalf during interrogations. Before you have an attorney present, it is helpful not to say anything. Law enforcement can pressure alleged offenders into making false confessions or other incriminating statements. With our attorneys present, we can guide you on which questions to answer and not answer.
- Help you decide if you want to choose the plea deal. When the prosecution offers a plea deal, we can review it to determine if it’s fair and if it’s the best route to justice based on the evidence and other factors.
- Gather the evidence and investigate the arrest. Our team can ensure the arresting officers collected evidence legally. We can review the evidence that the prosecution may use against you in a trial and build a defense based on that evidence.
- Represent you in court if your case goes to trial. We can take your case to a trial if the prosecution doesn’t present a fair offer. We can stand up to them and poke holes in their case so they can’t prove you’re guilty.
Our team has fought for many Phoenix clients against child pornography charges and knows how to build an effective defense. Many of our past clients have avoided convictions and the consequences of that by having our legal team represent them.
What Constitutes Child Pornography?
Federal laws prohibit any production, distribution, or possession of anything that could involve child pornography, and offenders could face both federal and state charges.
Arizona laws define child pornography as a crime when someone knowingly commits the following actions:
- Recording, filming, taking photos, developing, or duplicating any visual depictions where a minor is engaged in exploitative behavior or other sexual conduct.
- Distributing, transporting, exhibiting, receiving, selling, purchasing, transmitting electronically, or exchanging any visual depiction where a minor engages in sexual conduct or exploitive behavior.
This is a serious crime that could lead to severe penalties. On top of the penalties induced by the law, there are long-term consequences to having a child pornography charge on your record. They could include difficulty finding or keeping employment, losing child custody, or difficulty renting or buying a home.
Because of the severe consequences someone could face, both legally and personally, you may want to hire our legal team quickly so we can help keep you out of prison.
Punishments for Child Pornography in Arizona
Arizona treats people who commit acts related to child pornography harshly. Sexual exploitation of a minor is a class 2 felony.
People who commit these crimes could receive these penalties:
- A prison sentence, with the length depending on previous offenses and the severity of the current charges
- Fines
- Extensive probation
- The requirement to register on the sex offender registry
- The possibility of losing custody of their children
The age of the victim could enhance the penalties the offender could receive. For example, if the victim is under the age of 15, the courts could order harsher penalties.
Possible Defenses to Child Pornography Charges in Phoenix, Arizona
At Gurion Legal, we can look at potential defenses to your child pornography charges. Our team can study the evidence and case the prosecution has built against you to personalize the defensive strategy. We can first look at the potential defenses we could use.
Some of them include:
- Someone falsely accused the defendant
- Law enforcement found illegal content on a shared computer
- Law enforcement coerced a confession
- Illegal search
- Entrapment
- The viewing of the content was accidental
- The person in the content is above 18
- The content is not child pornography
Depending on the circumstances of your case, we could use one or several of these defense strategies in your case.
Someone Falsely Accused the Defendant
An adult or child might have falsely accused you of producing, possessing, or distributing child pornography. There are many motives people have as to why they make these accusatory statements. Accusers could have lied, received misinformation, misinterpreted the situation, or made an honest mistake. Regardless of the motives, you may opt for our legal counsel to defend you from the accusations.
Children might make false accusations for the following reasons:
- An adult coached them to make the accusation.
- They misunderstood what happened.
- They wanted to get attention.
Adults could make false accusations if they’re angry with the person they are accusing and are trying to seek vengeance. Spouses could also make these accusations during child custody proceedings to try to gain full custody of children.
Our team can take steps to prove the accusations made against you are false. For example, an attorney from our firm may point to the lack of evidence alleging you engaged in viewing child pornography.
Law Enforcement Found the Illegal Content on a Shared Computer
In some cases, law enforcement could seize content they found from a shared computer and accuse you of viewing the pornography. For example, roommates or other people who live in the home could have viewed the content, not you.
During legal proceedings, our attorneys can provide evidence that other people had access to the computer, showing that the prosecution can’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt it was you who viewed the child pornography.
Law Enforcement Coerced a Confession
You could have received child pornography charges because you confessed to the crime you received a charge for. However, sometimes people make false confessions. Investigators working with law enforcement have techniques they use to break people down during interrogations.
Sometimes, these tactics cause people to make false confessions.
Common reasons people make false confessions include:
- Voluntary confessions: Someone could quickly make a false confession without much pressure. A possible reason people voluntarily confess to crimes is to gain notoriety.
- Law enforcement encouraged a confession: After getting interrogated for a long time, people could begin to doubt their own memory regarding the incident. When this happens, they could confess to the crime because they had a lapse in judgment and believed they had committed it.
- Compliance: When investigators interrogate a suspect for a long time, they get to a point where they want to end it. Investigators usually put intense pressure on the suspect and entice them with a reward once they confess.
We could provide evidence to get your confession thrown out if it was false. Our attorneys can view the interrogation videos to determine how law enforcement coerced you into making a false confession. By hiring an attorney at our firm soon after the arrest, you may be able to avoid feeling pressured to make a false confession.
Law Enforcement Conducted an Illegal Search and Seizure
The Constitution gives people in the United States rights regarding search and seizure. A police officer cannot just enter a home without a warrant, search the property, and seize materials, as they must follow the proper procedures.
Our child pornography attorneys can investigate the search to show evidence that the police could have illegally obtained evidence. If they did, that evidence could get thrown out of court. If all evidence incriminating you of a crime gets thrown out, our attorneys can fight to have your charges dropped.
Entrapment
To catch criminals, police officers sometimes conduct sting operations. Sting operations are when the police arrest someone for committing a crime they encouraged them to commit. If the police had not encouraged it, the person would not have committed the crime. This is called entrapment.
Our attorneys can defend you by stating the title was ambiguous and doesn’t prove that you knew it contained child pornography.
You Accidentally Saw the Content
Many individuals didn’t intentionally look at child pornography and came across it by accident. Someone could have intended to view age-appropriate pornography and not realized it was child pornography. Even though it is an honest mistake, you could still face child pornography charges.
In this case, an attorney with Gurion Legal could look through your search history to prove you didn’t look for this content. We could also review the video to indicate there is no way to know the video or pictures you viewed had children present.
The Person in the Content Is Above 18
If the content does not include children, the prosecutors can’t identify it as child pornography. Sometimes, if a person in the content looks younger than 18 but isn’t, the viewer could receive child pornography charges.
Our legal team can establish the person in the content is above 18. Once we provide evidence proving such, we can demand that your charges get dropped.
The Content Is Not Child Pornography
The law defines child pornography specifically. Content must match the exact specifics to constitute child pornography. If it doesn’t, you cannot receive a conviction for your child pornography charges. For example, if the content is for educational purposes, it may not be defined as child pornography under the law.
Call Gurion Legal for a Strong Defense Against Phoenix Child Pornography Changes
When you face a potential conviction for child pornography, it’s very important to seek help from a Phoenix child pornography lawyer from our firm. The legal team at Gurion Legal knows how to defend your rights to give you a better chance at avoiding a conviction. If you get a conviction on your record, it could affect you for the rest of your life. Reach out to a Phoenix sex crimes lawyer.
Reach out to our firm today at (480) 800-0020 for a free consultation. Our team can discuss the circumstances of your case and describe how we can help you. Then, you can learn more about your legal options and get started on fighting for your freedom.
