Lawyer: 16-Year-Old Shouldn't Be Upset By Explicit Photos Cop Sent Her Because She's Probably Seen Penises On The Internet

from the I-see-at-least-one-huge-dick-here dept

Edwin Guzman is currently facing charges of “annoying and accosting” a person of the opposite sex, as well as disseminating harmful material to a minor. That would be Officer Guzman — and not just any officer — but Sergeant Guzman, who was promoted around the same time he was sending naked pictures of himself to a 16-year-old girl. (Warning: AUTOPLAY)

“It started off we regularly chat and it’s mostly about school and how life is,” the teenager who was 16 at the time told 5 Investigates’ Mike Beaudet.

But she says the conversations kept escalating from there.

“If I gave him like pleasure and let him do things to me, he’d be willing to buy me things,” she said. “He took a picture of his penis and he sent it to me.”

Please note that if a classmate had sent a photo of his penis to this 16-year-old girl, he might be facing child pornography charges and a lifetime on the sex offender registry, rather than “annoying and accosting,” which would net Guzman a maximum $200 fine and 6 months in jail.

That an officer — and a family friend — would use both of these positions to attempt to coerce a minor into sexual activity is disturbing enough. But what’s more disturbing is his lawyer’s dismissiveness of the teen’s response to the unwanted explicit pictures. (h/t Chris Soghoian)

Afterward, his lawyer, Kenneth Anderson, said there are discussions with prosecutors to resolve ?the case.

“I really can’t go into detail given the nature of things. They’re serious charges,” Anderson said.

But he disputed the charges that Guzman sent a 16-year-old girl harmful pictures and said even if the allegation were true, he doesn’t believe the material would have been that shocking.

“You can’t tell me someone her age has never seen a picture of a penis on the Internet,” Anderson said.

So, by this rationale, the teen shouldn’t be upset if an older relative, politician, church leader, trusted community figure, random neighbor or anyone else that shouldn’t be sending dick pics to minor sent her explicit photos. After all, spend enough time on the internet and you’re bound to see a penis. Perhaps Anderson could help her get over her fear of penis pictures by sending a few of his own her way.

This argument never should have been stated out loud. Hopefully, he won’t be raising this in court. There’s a huge difference between being sent an unwanted explicit photo and just coming across one while surfing the web. Add to this the fact that the person sending them was not only a family friend, but also in a position of power, and the disparity between “random internet dick pic” and what actually happened here becomes even greater. Even if the unnamed minor went searching for penis photos on the web, it would have been a consensual act. But there’s nothing consensual about being sent explicit photos by a person in a position of power and trust — one obviously willing to abuse both — and arguing that just because someone has seen a penis before means they have no right to be upset about being sent unwanted photos is the lowest (in all senses of the word) form of rhetoric.

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Comments on “Lawyer: 16-Year-Old Shouldn't Be Upset By Explicit Photos Cop Sent Her Because She's Probably Seen Penises On The Internet”

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56 Comments
David says:

Re: Re: Re:

Incidentally, I have a pair among my acquaintances where indeed the woman got pregnant while still being a virgin in the technical and medical sense. Once the news was out, however, she and her boyfriend decided not to let this state persist if they were going to pay the price anyway. So they don’t have a virgin birth to show, and calling the conception “immaculate” would have been quite a stretch as well.

I do admit that at the time of conception she quite likely had already seen a male member, even though I never asked for the lighting details.

David says:

Re: Re: Re:2 Re:

That was no mom story material. I mean, the absence of actual intercourse (which they’d likely had gotten to eventually, though with proper protection) pretty much implies a mess. As I said “immaculate” does not cut it.

Also we are not talking the U.S. and its ridiculous parallel sexual pretend universe here anyway (they did not actually marry until several years later).

David says:

Re: Re:

Sorry, but someone hitting on a 16-year old is not a pedophile (unless we are talking an uncommonly underdeveloped girl here). He’s just out for fresh rather than budding fruit. Probably because he considered her easy prey.

He’s just a power-abusing creepo fuckwit. He does not need therapy but jail time.

That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Nonsense, you can be sure both the judge and his supervisor will give him a very stern talking to about proper professional conduct, determine that that’s punishment enough, and let him continue working at the same job and same rank, same as before.

I mean come now, anything more would just be excessive, I’m sure he’s learned his lesson, and that’s what’s really important in all this. /s

(I wish the first part was sarcasm, but unfortunately I’m pretty sure that’s exactly what will happen. A slapped wrist, a wagged finger or two, and nothing more, for an action that would have anyone else behind bars, all because the one who did it has a badge.)

Anonymous Coward says:

So when a boyfriend does it people in the “justice” system goes stark raving mad and screams “DESTROY HIIIIM!” with spittle flying out and everything.
When someone who should be trusted, in more than one way, who is in a position of power and who is generally not considered to be in the age of stupidity does it, then it is “Meh… no big deal, she has probably seen it before. I bet her boyfriend sent her some as well”.

Maybe not word for word, but I still feel like I am in crazy land here. I am about to start pulling my own hair out here because nothing makes sense.

That One Guy (profile) says:

Re: Re:

Oh but you see it does make sense. Twisted, rotten and corrupted sense, but it does make sense, you just have to look at it through the lens of power and/or money.

It’s simple:

If an average civilian breaks the law, it’s a terrible action, a crime, and something deserving of the harshest punishment.

If someone with a large enough bank account, someone with the right personal connections, or someone in the police, government agencies or politics does it, then there’s ‘extenuating circumstances’, it ‘was a mistake’, it’s ‘not that big of a deal’, or something similar, and to insist on punishment or equal treatment under the law is ‘being vindictive’. After all, ‘everyone makes mistakes’, right?

David says:

Re: Re:

Uh, that’s not a case of “us vs them”. The distinguishing difference is that a potential boyfriend is likely underage so if he sends dick pics of himself, he is distributing child porn. And that’s what he will get the life-long stigma for.

You know, to warn people that this is a guy who might exploit himself while underage.

I can’t wait until they prosecute boys as child pornographers for drawing dick pics. If Hentai can be labelled as child pornography, a dick pic drawn by an underage boy will most certainly count much more, given that his depiction of underage genitals is more likely than not based on the availability of himself as model.

It’s definitely not a victimless crime. Common sense died convulsing with laughter.

Anonymous Coward says:

Also note the absurd (presumably police union-negotiated) leave arrangement

Seargent Guzman was arraigned November 2014 and placed on paid administrative leave until the Internal Affairs investigation is concluded. Internal Affairs will not begin their investigation until the criminal case is resolved. So even assuming his next court appearance in early February 2016 resolves the case (regardless of the resolution), he gets more than a year of paid administrative leave before Internal Affairs even begins working on his case. Where else can you get a year off, paid (and, presumably, not in pre-trial detention, because this is a police officer we’re talking about), because you were alleged to have committed a serious crime?

Anonymous Coward says:

Someone needs to remind this cop about the law. It’s a violation of state and federal law to disseminate depictions of pornography to minors. Just what the hell did this cop think he was doing?

They arrest minors all of the time and charge them with distribution of child pornogrpahy when minors sext-text each other with pictures of themselves and now this is cop is claiming that this teen probably saw a penis on the internet so it’s okay to send an underaged teenager a picture of a penis?

What the bloody hell? Damn cops engaged in child porn.

Anonymous Coward says:

The Reasonable Guzman

Remember, LEOs are special people who have to make quick decisions or people die. Because of this we have to give leeway to them as to what was reasonable to him in that moment.

If Guzman was standing there, phone in hand, pants down, thumb hovering over the picture button, we have to understand the pressure he was under, and that if he didn’t take that picture, then Share as fast as possible to an unwilling recipient how much worse things would have been.

Nonya beeswax says:

Bad cop

The govt can molest children now and get away with it now. Really sick.
I tryed to save my son from his mother who had problems. She was molested by her cousin, and did not get the help she needed. The judge’s that i had to deal with would tell me to shut up, and let her use hear say in court. I had evidence that the judge’s would not look at.
I had to call child protective services against my own son. Too late to do anything now. What is a judge gonna do now. Use magic and say your son is not a gay pedophile any more.
The govt is really really sick in the head.
Thanks for the heart attack. I have proof of that too and more. A lot more.
At this point if this happened to my daughter who i had with a different mother i would put a cap in his ass. Then his head.
Our government is dead in the head, and too stupid to prevent whats comming. DON’T F**k WITH PEOPLES KIDS. I AM NOT ALONE ON THIS.
Now poisoning little children with lead in Flint, MI.
Is there any part of government that is not that sick in the head?

Melissa S. says:

No minor looks at porn. Ever. (But especially not girls, heaven forbid)

So if a 16-year-old girl had seen a penis on the internet previous it’s because she stumbled on it unintentionally? She couldn’t have sought it out on purpose? And I’m sure we all believe 16-year-old boys would never seek out images of vaginas/breasts online either. Because otherwise that would be sexism. Good call author.

CommonTater (profile) says:

and what about the lawyer?

It is one thing to try to help your client weasel out of the consequences of his actions. When your client is supposed to be protecting us from crime, and is instead apparently choosing to perform those crimes himself…. Find evidence to prove mitigating circumstances, propose alternative sentences to make sure this action isn’t repeated – maybe a lobotomy? Under NO circumstances suggest that the victim isn’t really a victim. Any competent lawyer needs to be aware of what they law saws, and I doubt any law says that this is ok. Maybe he needs to get a new job himself?

That Anonymous Coward (profile) says:

And we wonder why this is even being attempted…
It works in “terrorism” cases…

we sent in a female to seduce him & encourage violence… and hid that evidence.

we contacted someone our CI, who spends ALL of his payments on feeding his drug habit & we threatened to cut off unless the CI got us a solid lead, and crafted a plan & manipulation to encourage cooperation in the plot we created, pushed forward, & bankrolled.

we saw them buying hydroponic things, found wet plant matter, so we raided the house & owe nothing for being so very wrong.

Because terrorism
Because war on drugs
Because penii (penises?) on the internet

We swallow it all the time, why be shocked they want to go further?

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