Cops No Longer Want Photos of Teen's Erection, Warn Kid to Stay Out of Trouble
Charges are likely to be dismissed against a 17-year-old Virginia teenager who was arrested for sexting his girlfriend.
Here's a belated update to a case Reason covered previously: Charges are likely to be dismissed against a 17-year-old Virginia teenager who was arrested for sexting his girlfriend.
Readers will recall that prosecutors had obtained a warrant to take the teen to a medical facility, inject him with drugs that would give him an erection, and then photograph his penis. The intrusive demands raised—ahem—eyebrows, and eventually the Manassas City Police backed off.
According to The Washington Post, the teen was given a year's probation last week. If he stays out of trouble for that amount of time, the charges may be dropped:
[The judge] set a hearing for next August. "Assuming the defendant complies with everything I've articulated," he said, "the cases will be up for possible dismissal at that time." …
The teen defendant said: "I don't know how to feel about it yet. It hasn't sunk in. .?.?. I feel good about the sentence, but then again, I feel bad because we didn't need to get involved in all this. .?.?. They just blew it all out of proportion."
Keep in mind that the crime in question was the mutual and consensual exchange of nude photos between two teenagers. It was perfectly legal for them to have sex, but any such photos constitute child pornography.