Similar To Playboy Photos Get Attorney Convicted, Disbarred

A criminal conviction has led to an order of disbarment by the New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department.

…the respondent was charged in the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Ohio, with three counts of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor, three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance, three counts of illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance, and one count of rape.

On February 5, 2013, the respondent entered a written plea of no contest to two counts of attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity-oriented material or performance (a lesser included offense of the crime set forth in counts four and six of the above-referenced indictment), in violation of § 2923.02(A) of the Ohio Revised Code, as it relates to § 2907.323(A)(1). On May 10, 2013, Judge W. Duncan Whitney of the Court of Common Pleas of Delaware County, Ohio, sentenced the respondent to 24 months of imprisonment for both crimes, to run concurrently, and directed him to pay the costs of prosecution, and fines totaling $20,000. In addition, because he had been found to be a “Tier II Sex Offender/Child Victim Offender Registrant,” he was advised to register as a sex offender in accordance with § 2950.032 of the Ohio Revised Code.

The respondent is currently incarcerated at a correctional facility in Orient, Ohio.

The Delaware County Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction and described the conduct

Appellant’s convictions for attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance stemmed from two photographs sent to him from a fifteen year old girl. One photograph depicted the girl topless, and the second photograph depicted an exposed nipple.

The court rejected the attorney’s constitutional and other claims

We conclude the photographs depict nudity. As to a lewd exhibition, the subject is posed; therefore, the photographs are an exhibition. The posed partially clothed subject is not in a normally posed fashion. The poses are inherently sexual as the subject arched her back and fully exposed her breasts. These photographs are similar to images portrayed in “Playboy” whose main purpose is to exhibit sexual behavior that approaches sexual innuendo.

Upon review, we find the convictions for attempted illegal use of a minor in nudity oriented material or performance were not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

The attorney had appealed after entering an Alford plea. (Mike Frisch)