Judge denies child porn victim restitution from distributor (Washington, DC)

Judge Leonie M. Brinkema--a friend to child porn peddlers everywhere.

Thanks to Judge Brickema, a convicted child porn distributor will not have to pay a dime of restitution to "Vicky," a young woman who was raped as a child by her father, with the abuse being filmed. Though the distributor has made a ton of money off Vicky and other kids like her, I'm sure.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Judge-denies-child-porn-victim-restitution-from-distributor-8738932-81041297.html

Judge denies child porn victim restitution from distributor
By: Freeman Klopott
Examiner Staff Writer

January 11, 2010 A federal judge has denied a prosecutors' request to force a convicted child porn distributor to pay more than $215,000 to one of the victims depicted in the images.

James B. Clawson Sr. was sentenced Friday to eight years in prison, but "Vicky" who is now 19, will not collect on her request through prosecutors for the cash. The case was one of several circulating through courts nationally in which Vicky and a woman referred to in court records as "Misty" are trying to obtain restitution for the pain and suffering the images have cost them.

Since February when a federal judge granted Misty $130,000 from a Connecticut man who collected the pictures and videos her uncle took when she was 8 years old, the two women have collectively been awarded $10 million nationally.

Vicky won the first restitution case locally in September, when U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady ordered a Stafford County man to pay her $3,000 for the images he downloaded of an 11-year-old Vicky being abused by her father.

"Receiving and viewing child pornography inflicts an injury upon the child depicted by violating his or her privacy, contributing to a cycle of abuse, and perpetuating a market for the sharing of material," O'Grady wrote in his opinion.

But Clawson's case was heard by one of O'Grady's colleagues in Alexandria's federal courthouse Judge Leonie M. Brinkema, who had already denied restitution to Vicky in an earlier case and did so again for Clawson.

According to prosecutors, the 47-year-old Alexandria home contractor came to authorities' attention during an investigation into an Internet bulletin board dedicated to child porn called "Phacue's House."

Some of those images, prosecutors said in court documents, were of Vicky. Clawson's attorney, Nina Ginsberg, pointed out that prosecutors never said specifically how many were of Vicky.

Ginsberg added that she felt the sentence was too stiff and it will likely be cut before Clawson turns himself in by April 1 because Clawson has been cooperating with authorities.

The restitution ordered by judges for people who viewed and distributed the images of Vicky and Misty far exceeds the $10,800 Vicky's father was ordered to pay and the $6,325 Misty's uncle was required to pay, court records show.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/crime/Judge-denies-child-porn-victim-restitution-from-distributor-8738932-81041297.html#ixzz0cGwoc9RT