Around the Web

Prosecutors in Utah have charged a 15-year-old boy with a felony in a nude cell phone picture case.  He was charged with one felony count of dealing material harmful to a minor, and three misdemeanor lewdness counts.  We have previously reported the growing trend among teenagers who trade nude photos of themselves over cell phones.

Sentencing Law and Policy and Grits for Breakfast mention Grits's call for "more law blawggers need to weigh in on West Texas polygamy case."  The New York Times has more information on the hearings regarding the welfare of more than 400 children seized from the Texan compound.  According to the article, the hearing may be "one of the largest child custody proceedings in United States history." I've been swamped with Kennedy, so I'm a bit behind on the story. I also admit that I'm still waiting for the sex crime legal issues to emerge.  So far, I've been interested in Grits's criminal procedure issues, but I haven't seen any interesting substantive criminal law issues yet.  But I do hope to post more about the story next week.

Crime and Consequences reports that Kentucky will make it a felony to sexually abuse a child up to 16 years of age. "The law extends the victim's age to 18 if the abuser is an authority figure [and] allows victims to report the crime within five years of their 18th birthday." Crime and Consequences also reports that a California animal shelter supervisor has been convicted of sexually assaulting six female inmates assigned to the shelter as part of their sentence.

CNN reports that the California social services agency is trying to "shut down nine homes used for child day care and foster care after an audit found registered sex offenders living there," in violation of California law.  The revelation came after state auditors compared the addresses of the facilities with the state's database of registered sex offenders.