Double standard on Child porn in VA

VIRGINIA BEACH

A member of a Virginia Beach rock band is being held without bond at the Central Virginia Regional Jail on a charge of soliciting child pornography through the Internet.

Christopher Atkinson, also known as Christian Atkins, 23, of Virginia Beach is the lead singer of Celebrity Gunfight. He was arrested in Virginia Beach on Friday, and Louisa County sheriff's investigators transferred him to the Central Virginia Regional Jail, said Major Donnie Lowe, of the Louisa County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities in Louisa, about 50 miles northwest of Richmond, received a complaint Sept. 5 from a woman who reported finding explicit photos of her 16-year-old daughter on the teenager's cell phone, according to court records. An investigator reported the girl acknowledged sending the photos to Atkinson after he requested them, according to court records.

"We're alleging he knew she was 16," Lowe said.

Investigators were aware that the girl's MySpace page listed her age as 18, but Lowe said authorities intend to prove that Atkinson knew the girl was a minor.

"Prior to us placing the charge, we make sure we overcome that obstacle," he said.

Ok so it's ok for her to lie about her age on MySpace, then take nude pictures of herself, then she send those photos via cell phone, to someone else, who is later charge with having those images. My question is why wasn't she arrested for distribution of child porn? She did break the law as well, why isn't she being charge with a crime? It's easy the DA is claiming she is the victim....

VA court changes Mind on Spamming

The Virginia Supreme Court agreed to reconsider its original judgment on the state's anti-spam law, which made it illegal to send email using an anonymous email address or IP address. Their new decision: prohibiting anonymously sent emails is a violation of the First Amendment.

The court noted that "were the 'Federalist Papers' just being published today via e-mail, that transmission by Publius would violate the [current Virginia] statute."

The real problem with the statute is that it's overbroad, said the court, and it can't simply be reworded. We assume this means the state legislature will have to start over, and this time limit the statute to "commercial or fraudulent e-mail, or to unprotected speech such as pornography or defamation."

This is one of those feel-bad judgments—ultimately we agree with the court that the law needs to be more specific in order to limit its power, but in the meantime this means that spam king Jeremy Jaynes, who had been sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2004 under the newly enacted law, is now free to resume spamming until a new, better worded statute can be drafted.

Ryan Frederick Case Update

click on picture to visit his myspace page

CHESAPEAKE

The special prosecutor in the case against Ryan Frederick, the Chesapeake man accused of killing a city detective, wants the murder trial moved out of the Hampton Roads area.

The commonwealth has urged the court for a change of venue from Chesapeake to a court elsewhere in the state. Frederick is to stand trial Jan. 20 in Chesapeake Circuit Court on charges of capital murder, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

Paul Ebert, the commonwealth’s attorney from Prince William County appointed to the case, said the trial must be moved because pretrial publicity has made it impossible for the commonwealth to get a fair trial.

Frederick’s attorney, James Broccoletti, said he opposes any move, arguing that the citizens of Chesapeake have not only an obligation but a right to sit in judgment in a case of this magnitude.

Frederick, who turned 29 in the Chesapeake Correctional Center, is accused of fatally shooting Detective Jarrod Shivers on the night of Jan. 17 while Shivers and more than a dozen other officers executed a drug search warrant.

Very interesting, usually its the defendant who ask to have the case move to another part of the state, but here it the DA, who claim he can't get a fair hearing. THIS IS A SET UP THE CHESAPEAKE PD FUCK UP PERIOD and now is blaming Ryan for protecting his home... no or very little weed was found is now enough for any VA DA to charge people with possession with the intent to distribute marijuana. Better watch out if you have any pain killers in your purse you just might get charge with trafficing

‘Tell it to the Judge’ Survey to Query Witnesses, Lawyers About Fairness

I wonder why none of these survey were sent to the Judge who thought of this program home state? Why was VA left out? Is Judge Olds Afraid of what the results would be for VA? Is she afraid of being name a lousy judge ?

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‘Tell it to the Judge’ Survey to Query Witnesses, Lawyers About Fairness

Posted Jul 15, 2008, 12:18 pm CDT
By Molly McDonough

Lawyers, witnesses, police officers and other court participants in nine states will be asked to fill out surveys asking them about the fairness of the proceedings.

The "Tell it to the Judge" surveys are being conducted by 10 judges affiliated with the American Judges Association and in cooperation with the National Center for State Courts.

Surveys pose questions about whether the judge listened to all sides and whether the parties were treated with respect. Participants are not asked to reveal their names, but are asked questions about their race, type of case, how they were involved (juror, attorney, probation officer, etc.) and whether the outcome of the case was favorable to them.

Judges, who preside over misdemeanor and general jurisdiction courts, will begin the surveys this week in Arizona, California, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Oregon, Nevada, and Texas, according to an AJA (PDF) notice.

Findings will be discussed at the AJA's educational conference in Maui in early September.

Here is what was in the pdf text about this program

People will have the opportunity to anonymously tell the judge how they feel they are being treated in courtrooms across the country today and the rest of the week as the American Judges Association pilots a survey of court users, “Tell it to the Judge.”

In designated courtrooms today in Michigan, Texas, Ohio, Oregon, Kansas, Arizona, Missouri, California and Nevada, ten judges who are members of the AJA have agreed to test a survey, “Tell It to the Judge”. All users of the court parties, attorneys, police officers, witnesses, jurors and observers – will be asked to anonymously tell the judge through a short survey approved by the Research Division of the National Center for State Courts, how they feel they were treated and make suggestions for improving services. The effort is one of several by the American Judges Association, under the leadership of AJA President Eileen Olds, to improveaccess to and fairness in the courts. Results from the surveys completed at the pilot sites will be analyzed by experts at the National Center for State Courts. Judges will get the chance to see how they are perceived and identify areas in which services can be improved. Project results will be discussed at the upcoming annual AJA educational conference in September.

New crap from Olds

Children First
Eileen Olds says destiny made her a trailblazer.
By Arthur Hill
Posted 08/11/08

“My calling is to make a difference,” says Eileen Olds (Psychology ’79). “I believe that I have been called to make a difference in the lives of the children and the families that I serve.”

I don’t know what she called making a difference in children lives, unless it means to block loving parents from their kids. In my a father who has never been with his child alone, never able to take his only son to movie, baseball game, or any other public event all, whom to this day doesn’t know where his son is or how his health is. Yet she call this making a difference good. This coming from a 50-something non parent, the only kids she is close to is those of other family members

Chance meetings and “failures” with silver linings—otherwise known as “destiny”—have led her to where she is, says Olds, a judge on the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court in Chesapeake, Va., since 1995, the first woman and the first African American in the city’s history to sit on the bench. “When I look back on my life, I can see there were moments of revelation. I now understand that I have gone through a natural progression of events. You join a path that was chosen for you to take.”

Attending the University of Virginia was on that predestined path. A chance meeting with Lloyd Ricks, then dean of admissions, led to the Chesapeake native entering the fourth class that included women. And she says that if she had not run for state legislature—a race she lost by 87 votes—she might not have become a judge. “I was appointed at least in part by the efforts of my opponent after he took office,” she says.

Sometimes I wish she had won that election then at least she would have just mess up the children lives but everyone lives in Virginia. She was appointed by her opponent, mmm I wonder why?

It’s a destiny filled with trailblazing and perseverance. After being elected her middle school’s first African-American student-council president, the school abolished the council, presumably to prevent her from taking office.

Does she know this for a fact!

After graduating with honors from the University, she became one of four African Americans in her class at the College of William and Mary’s Marshall-Wythe School of Law, the first African American in private practice in Chesapeake and, at 26, one of the youngest presidents of her local NAACP chapter. Last year, the 3,000-member American Judges Association, an international organization headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., elected her its president—the first African-American and only the fourth woman president in its 50-year history.

Early in her career, juvenile justice became her passion. Olds realized that the “most devastating and gut-wrenching criminal cases” were those involving the abuse and neglect of children. “I know absolutely that dysfunction in families has an enormous impact on the futures of innocent children,” she says.

I wonder if her parents were place on trial today for the way they were raised I wonder only many actions would be considered as abuse and neglect. She as an impact on the children alright a negative one that is for sure.

Over the years, she has fulfilled her goal to protect and defend them. “I recognized my ability to advocate effectively,” she said. “My selection as a juvenile and domestic relations judge was a natural progression for me.”

Well then I guess the only advocating that she does is for single motherhood, and mothers rights, since she does give the same to father at all in her court, just maybe once in a while a father will win in her court case the issue are so great that she can’t see a way to justify her actions or decision if she finds for the mother.

At the American Judges Association, Olds has established an outreach program called Tell It to the Judge, a multiyear effort to seek input from the general public about the judicial process. The AJA is holding events around the country that allow citizens to talk to panels of judges about their experience with the judicial process and offer recommendations for change. “The most important thing that citizens are looking for is an opportunity to be heard—not necessarily a favorable outcome,” says Olds.

That is one program I would love to take part in.

Olds also believes the nation’s judges will gain from opinions and recommendations of citizens whose lives have been changed by decisions made in the nation’s courts. “We’re the gatekeepers of the system,” she says. “We have to better understand how others perceive us.”

What does the future hold for Olds? Except for her belief that her travels along a predetermined path of progress will continue, she has no idea. She wants to offer a message of “hope and possibility” to children, and she’ll go “where the Lord leads me” to deliver her message. “It’s worked well so far,” she says.

The future needs to lead her sorry ass back out of the Chesapeake JDR and back into private practice. Where she should have been all this time?

my comments are those in italic