AF, an 18 year old male from New York, had an online relationship with a 14 year old female from Massachusetts. The relationship included an exchange of pictures and an exchange of videos. The videos were very explicit. AF arranged to come to Massachusetts and meet with the female. They met and were seated in AF’s car when the police came. An investigation followed. The police in NY were contacted and AF’s computer was seized in NY. A forensic examination of AF’s computer and the female’s computer revealed the many explicit emails that AF and the female had exchanged as well as the videos. What this case was really all about was a love relationship between AF and the female. Attorney Lewin was able to convince the District Attorney that AF was not a “child predator”, that AF and the female had a genuine non-sexual relationship with one another (notwithstanding the pictures and the videos), and that AF was not the type of person the child enticement statute was designed to protect against. On July 26, 2010 with the agreement of the District Attorney the Judge in Framingham District Court continued AF’s case generally for six months. The case will be dismissed on January 11, 2011. There was no guilty plea; there was no “admission to sufficient facts”; this was NOT a plea bargain. There was absolutely no admission of any wrongdoing by AF. A successful result was reached, in part, because Attorney Lewin furnished to the District Attorney a number of the emails between AF and the female that showed that this really was a love relationship between AF and the female. It was important to avoid a conviction because a conviction would have required 20 years of sex offender registration as well as an electronic monitoring bracelet during any term of probation. All of that was avoided.
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