Republican Pedophilia - a Long but Distinguished List

Bring it On! has an item, "Republican Pedophilia - a Long but Distinguished List" by Steve O posted on Monday. There is another (different but overlapping) list at Huffington Post as well.

Initially this list was viewed with a jaundiced eye, 63 items, culminating in "Republican Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the rape of children in Iraqi prisons in order to humiliate their parents into providing information about the anti-American insurgency. See excerpt of one prisoner’s report here and his full report here." (WARNING these are very graphic descriptions)

Whilst the offence(s) detailed were real, to pin it entirely on Rummy seemed a bit of a stretch, although his fucking incompetence can be blamed for many things in Iraq.

So I selected entirely at random an item to investigate a bit deeper. "Republican Committee Chairman Jeffrey Patti was arrested for distributing a video clip of a 5-year-old girl being raped." (see pic (c) Alpha Epsilon Pi)

The link took me to an item in the New Jersey Star Ledger for January 28th 2005 - a story which can be found on other sites.

Broadly, it concerns James Bidwell of Georgia, pleading guilty in 2002 to sexual assault and child pornography charges relating to a 5 year old and copies he sent of the videotape he made to Canada and England. He is now serving 45 years in prison.

The Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force used the new "file sifting" software to track the video clip and found that 10,500 computers worldwide had downloaded this videoclip, including 6,500 in the United States and 42 in New Jersey alone

The program works by tracking a unique signature code that is embedded in a digital image when it is created. Once a signature code is known, investigators can search the Internet and trace the image to every computer that sent or received it. This can also track didgital music tracks.

An agent from Wyoming alerted the NJ State Police in October 2004(?)with the IP address of the 42 computers that downloaded the video - clip.

NJ detective then began a 2 month investigation that included background checks and surveillance to identify the suspects and produce enough evidence to obtain search warrants. Search warrants were execeuted beginning Jan. 17.

36 suspects during early morning raids were picked up on the 27th January 2005.

Remarkably ( to a limey) these were named publicly and included ;
Pediatric neurosurgeon Ross B. Finesmith, 43, of Basking Ridge is a clinical instructor in the Department of Neurology at New York University Medical Center.

Andrew R. Friedman, 27, of Morristown has been an assistant hockey coach with the Kinnelon High School hockey team in Morris County for two years.

Frederick A. Karge, a 21-year-old registered Megan’s Law offender from Jackson was a pharmaceutical technician.

and ..

Defense attorney Jeffrey Patti, 36, of Sparta,(Member of Executive Board - Alpha Epsilon Pi, the Jewish Fraternity of North America) who is married with two daughters, ages 2 and 6 months, Patti and his father, Frank, are partners in a Sparta law firm, and he also served at the time as the municipal chairman of the Sussex County Republican Committee.
The New Jersey Herald Thursday, March 23, 2006

Reports that Jeffrey Patti, 37, appeared in court Wednesday 22nd March afternoon for the first open-court hearing since the charges against him were filed in January 2005. Previous legal proceedings had been done over the phone and in the judge's chambers.

Patti was initially charged with both possession (Patti possessed the images between Oct. 15, 2003, and Nov. 22, 2004.) and distribution of child pornography, but a Mercer County grand jury August 2005, indicted him only on the possession charge, the less serious of the two. At most, that charge could carry up to 18 months in prison; but, for a first-time offender, the more likely sentence would be probation.

With no previous, Patti elected to go on the PreTrial Intervention (PTI) program but this was refused. Patti's defense lawyer defense lawyer John Furlong proposed a motion to challenge the state's rejection of Patti for PTI... and asked for a hearing without the Press .." in order to keep "extremely inflammatory" statements from reaching the public domain."

Judge Thomas Critchley Jr., taken aback by Furlong's request, said he had never closed a criminal hearing to the public.

It appears from the report that Patti admitted downloading illicit images but said he did so accidentally, in the course of obtaining adult pornography through file-sharing software.

Critchley said the images found on Patti's computer included "a very inappropriate video (depicting) a very young child in a very inappropriate sexual act" as well as "several other inappropriate images."

The New Jersey Herald May 10th 2006

NJ State Superior Court Judge Thomas Critchley admitted Patti into the Pre Trial Initiative program Tuesday May 9th 2006, for a period of 36 months. Special conditions of PTI require Patti to surrender computer equipment seized during the investigation, continue with psychological treatment for as long as is necessary, have no unsupervised contact with children under 16 years old who are not his own and use the Internet only for legal research.

Patti, a 37-year-old father of two young girls, must also complete 100 hours of community service and pay approximately $200 in fines and penalties, the judge said.

Deputy Attorney General Kenneth Sharpe declined to appeal a state Superior Court judge's ruling allowing Patti into pre-trial intervention, a probationary program for low-level offenders that if completed successfully removes criminal charges from a person's record.In this case in 3 years.

Pattis' lawyer Furlong is reported saying...""I represent sexual offenders of every stripe," Furlong said. "Of all the offenders I've met — and I can tell you I've met some pretty strange people — Jeff definitely doesn't fit the profile of a predatory personality."

Ross B.Finesmith,(44) M.D.License No. MA 05 8 19 voluntarily surrendered his licence on July 14th 2005 on being indicted for "knowingly possessing or knowingly viewing a
photograph, computer program or file which depicts a child engaging ..."

At the time of his arrest he was bailed on US$25,000 and his attorney Alain Leibman of Woodbridge, released a statement in which Finesmith denied all charges.

Despite a fairly intensive trawl I can find no more references to the named suspects / defendents any trials , judgements realting to the origanl haul of 39 suspects.

Not a topic that has appeared here before, the scale of usage of this stuff, the stupidity of the people caught, the ease of detection of offenders and the law's delay in dealing with them when caught is unsettling.

The effect on Sussex County GOP ? well their website says ..

Sussex County is THE strongest Republican county in the State of New Jersey, with both of our US Congressmen, all 3 of our State Legislators, all 5 of our County Freeholders and all 3 of our Constitutional Officers proudly wearing the GOP label. And the overwhelming majority of Mayors and municipal elected officials are also proud to be Republican.

No mention of paedophiles.