Clarence Worley

It was either this or joining a “Friends of people that have been charged with downloading kiddie porn support group”. I may need to start one if they don’t exist.

Based on what I’ve learned, conviction rates are very high especially if the Feds are involved. I’m sure many of these cases end in plea deals vs. risking a trial. I suspect most people charged with a crime this will do anything they can to avoid prison to avoid being public enemy #1 in prison. He may be able to avoid prison time but he will most certainly be put on the sex offender registry for at least 10 years. No matter what his life will be changed forever.

I have an off-road truck and could do something like this and claim I took a wrong turn like in a Chevy chase movie.

Or I could just respond with “I’ve never met him” or “I don’t recall” to every question. Could be a bold strategy.

Good advice @Chopper. Unfortunately I am pretty healthy and have a really good memory. I could get concussed. Maybe volunteer to be a crash test dummy or stuntman or something.

I’m prepared for that. I am not lying for my friend under any circumstances. I’ve already told my friend that if he is lying to me or I am put in a position to have to lie for him and put myself and my family at risk our friendship is over. It could be a FAFO moment for him. Time will tell.

Pretty damn funny. But I think you’ve been watching too many lifetime movies. I can barely devote enough time and attention to my wife. No way I could have a relationship with two women at the same time and keep it under wraps. if there is any advice I can pass along is that everyone should try to live in a rural community for a period of time. Like I said earlier, it exposes you to some interesting things and interesting people and changes your worldview on things. Being from a big city and traveling around the world, living in a rural area for a period of time has had the biggest impact on my views. Believe it or not it has made me more liberal being amongst more conservative people and dealing with the shit that they have to deal with on a daily basis and had to deal with for most of their lives.

Touché @goatsaag. However, at my company we take data security very seriously. You can’t pass the training unless you’re paying attention. If there is a violation of our data security policy, it is a fireable offense. We handle financial data for some of the biggest companies in the world. If there is a data breach, because of the immense liability, it would potentially bankrupt the company. The company I work for is a relatively small company too.

@GoPokes83, as has been mentioned upthread, after all of this my buddy really may have a future in politics.

Agree @Captainant. there is nothing else that I can do. I just want to make sure he gets the best defense he can afford. It is out of my hands and in his attorney’s hands now. I would think that anybody in my position would do the same thing. Maybe not post anonymously to a message board full of strangers but I thought it was the best way to quickly get expert opinions and confirm the best course of action for my friend and my wife and I.

@Neonmoon, I work for a software company and work on the business development side. We have IT security policies and are required to take security awareness training each year since we handle extremely confidential data and have a SaaS platform. I am somewhat IT savvy but in no way an expert. I’m knowledgeable enough to at least ask the right questions or suspect what may have happened if my friend’s story is true.

There is one good thing that may emerge from all of this. My friend said regardless of the outcome he is going to do everything in his power to make sure what is happening to him doesn’t happen to anybody else. He has obviously been very naive about a lot of things especially since he has family and friends in law enforcement. He said the conditions of the county jail were the worst he has ever experienced. He said the conditions of the county jail were worse than the cells that they detain suspected terrorists in the Middle East. He said they took his mug shot after they strip searched him. When he was the most humiliated and angry because the corrections officer kept kicking my friend’s bare ankles with his boots during the strip search, that is when they took his mugshot that is now public record. if anything, my buddy has now personally experienced what I’ve been telling him about our criminal justice system. At the risk of getting too cloak roomy, our criminal justice system is designed to produce criminals not rehabilitate them. He said there were a few people in his jail cell that couldn’t wait to go back to prison and wanted to skip the pre-trial arraignment. When everyone found out what he was charged with and this was his first offense he was the one that everyone distanced themselves from. He was ready to defend himself if he had to, but luckily no one attempted to harm him.

@Jerry Callo. Yep. I actually brought that up yesterday when my friend told me he talked to the police without a lawyer present. It is a movie but I imagine that scene although comedic is a real scenario. I didn’t expect Jerry Callo contribute to this thread. 😀

@Jerry Callo, wholeheartedly agree. Since you did a masterful job defending the two youths that were falsely accused of shooting and killing the clerk and helping the local police department solve the crime with the help of your lovely fiancée, I will definitely heed your advice.

He has hired an attorney. I met with my friend yesterday because like everyone has said, the details of the story don’t add up. This didn’t originate with an email after all. He searched for a site and went to a site that he has visited before that supposedly has legal content. He didn’t share the name of the site and I didn’t want know. That’s for his lawyer to investigate. He said there were disclaimers that the content was legal. This particular time he was browsing the site and he said he saw a link to something that had “Mega …” in the name. I will let you use your imagination. He said there was nothing to indicate it was a link to illegal content. When he clicked on the link a bunch of pop ups started opening. He panicked and spent the next several minutes closing pop ups that were opening. He said he didn’t see what images were in the popups. He was focused on closing them. It seems like he downloaded malware or a virus and didn’t know it. All of this has been shared with local authorities which I told him was not the smartest thing to do but he said he had nothing to hide. I told him it didn’t matter. Their job is not to prove your innocence. I thought this originated with an email that he received because it was what his wife indicated but she was distraught when we talked to her and didn’t have all of the facts herself. My friend may have also told her this originated with an email because he was extremely embarrassed. Also it was the email service provider that reported it and they shut down his email account not too long after the incident occurred. So the good news I suppose is that this was not some sort of sting operation and my friend was not being targeted based on prior activity on the internet. So question to any IT experts that would know. Could my friend have downloaded malware or a virus that attached illegal images to emails or sent emails with links to illegal content? My friend is not IT savvy and had no idea that this is what may have happened. The images that the cops had in their possession had some sort of digital watermark on them and that’s how they were detected. My friend probably should’ve done what @mchookem’s mother did and basically self-reported it. I told my friend and his wife that they need to make sure a cyber crimes or cyber forensic expert is hired. If his story is true then I would think it could be easily proven. I also let him know that if he is lying to me that our friendship is over and I will find out if he is lying to me because all of the evidence that will be presented in court. This is the time to be completely honest with me and that this is affecting everyone in his orbit especially since the cops have been monitoring his activity, who he associates with, etc. He knows if he is lying to his closest friends and family he risks losing everything and isolating himself. Also the local police department has been watching my friend and monitoring his activity over the past several months after they received the info from the email service provider. Evidently this was the only incident of viewing or downloading illicit content that they found but they still had to arrest and charge him. This is all I’m going to share for now until the case goes to trial but I did want to share an update because there is more to the story and wanted to clear up some of the misinformation that led people to believe this was a bs story. I would still like other’s opinions especially the IT experts around here.

@txhorns, I bought some property from them that they had just bought and they were planning to build their retirement home on in a few years. As soon as I found out they listed it I bought it. It is helping them at least raise some money for an attorney. They can either buy the property back from me when the dust settles or I will sell it.

I’m not seeking any attention. Everything has transpired over the past few days. I have never dealt with something like this and usually have solutions or have people within my orbit I can go to for advice to figure out the best solution. I am usually super careful about who I let into my life and develop personal relationships with. We have a house in a more rural community and it is impossible to avoid your neighbors. Being from a big city and having an opportunity to spend more time in a rural community has changed my view on the world in many ways. This friend of mine is a neighbor and because we see each other almost every day and hang out with them and our other neighbors frequently, it was hard not to develop a close relationship. My friend and his wife are going to have to move away from the community soon. There is no way they can go out in public and continue to be active because it is a fairly close knit community. One of my other friends that is a childhood friend and who we told last night has been doing some research since his head is spinning and couldn’t sleep. He minored in criminal justice, his stepfather is a retired cop, and he has found some things out. it is not looking good. I really do appreciate all of the honest responses.

May have just given a lot of people ideas about how they can get even with someone they don’t like. Just seems unbelievably too easy to ruin someone’s life these days. Hey Bob, can I borrow your computer or phone for a second. Downloads some kiddie porn and bam, cops show up at Bob’s door one day and Bob’s arrest and charges are then on public record and there is a digital footprint Bob can’t escape.

@Anastasis, not a troll job. Will do my best to keep this thread going or other posters can contribute with their stories/experiences. Just found out this case won’t go to trial for the next 3 - 6 months because of the case backlog. At the very least, I will report back and let everyone know the outcome of the trial. Could be eye opening for many of us.

@MaybeACoordinator, thanks for sharing that story. Something crossed my mind as well. Was my friend already on some sort of watchlist based on past search activity or a profile and targeted purposely? Like @Fudge Nuggets mentioned, he checks most of the boxes.

@956 Worldwide, I assure you this is not an asking for a friend situation or a troll job. I wish I could makeup stories like this. I would be in a completely different profession and probably writing books on a beach somewhere in the South Pacific for a living. I am intentional about staying off of social media. This is an unbelievable situation that I’ve never personally experienced and have to be careful about who I talk to because of the seriousness of the alleged crime. It may have not been the smartest thing to do but posting anonymously on a message board that I read quite a bit and know there are very knowledgeable posters seemed like the best way to get insights to help me determine the best course of action. The responses have been very helpful. Thanks everyone.

@DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt, I know it seems far fetched. But let’s be honest. There are sting operations designed to catch criminals and innocent people can get caught up in them. Our criminal justice system is far from perfect. I’m not saying that is the case here. I think a good lawyer with the resources to investigate cyber crimes would be able to trace the origin of the email. This evidently started with an email because it was the email service provider that reported it to the local authorities. It wasn’t the ISP provider that reported it as far as I know. Again there should be evidence to prove my friend’s version of things. If he is lying, we will find out soon enough.

@Dnaguy, that was also a thought I had and something I wanted to ask this forum. If you inadvertently click on a link that has illegal content, is it best to self-report to local authorities immediately or contact a lawyer? I’m thinking it may be but you’re also risking incriminating yourself.

@Dnaguy, that’s a good summary of the events based on what I know right now. I know there could be details missing and the lawyer hasn’t reviewed all of the evidence yet. It is suspicious, though, that the crime happened over a year ago and local law enforcement just now got around to arresting him. I would think law enforcement would jump on something like this immediately if someone was a danger to the community. I’ve received a couple of letters over the past year notifying me that there is a warrant out for my arrest for an unpaid speeding ticket that I got over 20 years ago. I’m not exactly sure how the system works but do cases get passed around police departments until eventually there is a police department that decides to pursue a case?

@Wally Fairway, local law enforcement arrested him. Feds haven’t been involved as far as I know. @956 Worldwide, it was one of my first thoughts when we learned about why he was arrested. Doing everything I can to help without getting directly involved. I also think that our laws need to be changed so that arrests are not public record until there is a plea bargain or conviction. Crimes like this don’t just affect the individual that may have committed the crime and their immediate family. It affects everyone within their orbit and the communities they live in especially if they are active in the community. I also wanted to share this story since it could happen to any of us or friends or family.