Prosecutors seek nearly $200,000 for child porn victim (Hammond, Indiana)

A young woman, identified only as Vicky, is seeking restitution from the men who have downloaded child pornography that included images of her as a child. The porn was created by her UNNAMED DAD, who raped and sexually abused her. These guys need to be hit hard, and this is one way to do it.

http://nwitimes.com/news/local/lake/article_c6221830-13a8-5755-9e45-4f70be85dbb0.html

Prosecutors seek nearly $200k for child porn victim
Judge asked to order restitution from Portage man who downloaded photos

By Dan Hinkel Posted: Monday, January 4, 2010 12:05 am

HAMMOND Vicky is ruled by her fear of the men who have downloaded pictures of her being sexually abused as a young girl.

"What is so frightening is that I could have walked past him any day on the street and not know that he would have had seen me being raped as a little girl and enjoyed my pain and humiliation," she wrote in a statement filed in Hammond federal court.

"Any one of them could be around me, and I would not even know it."

Federal prosecutors want Hammond federal Judge Joseph Van Bokkelen to order Portage child pornography convict Mark Ontiveros to pay the victim $193,310.86 in restitution because his computer held images of Vicky before his arrest in summer 2008. Most of that money would be earmarked for her mental health treatment and counseling, according to federal court records.

Ontiveros' attorney, Bryan Truitt, said his client doesn't deny he possessed child pornographic images, a crime that will net the convicted man at least five years in prison. But Truitt said he will argue Ontiveros cannot and should not pay almost $200,000 for the psychological consequences of the girl's sexual exploitation.

Ontiveros is not the "proximate cause" of enough harm to warrant that figure, Truitt said.

Ontiveros, a former steelworker who lived in the 3600 block of Allison Street in Portage before his arrest, has pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.

Prosecutors claim investigators found Ontiveros had collected more than 1,300 images and 18 videos showing children "posing lasciviously" or being raped or molested. Ontiveros admitted to police he viewed child pornography for as many as three hours per day, sometimes when his young son was in the room, according to court records.

At least one ofthe images in Ontiveros' collection is from a series of sexually explicit pictures of the girl referred to in court papers as "Vicky." Nine other children "known to law enforcement" were found in Ontiveros' pictures and videos, but Vicky's lawyer was the only attorney to seek restitution, according to the motion filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jill Trumbull-Harris.

Vicky's lawyer requested $165,905 for future counseling, $23,205.86 for treatment and "legal-related" costs and $4,200 in attorney fees, Trumbull-Harris wrote.

Trumbull-Harris submitted to Van Bokkelen a psychologist's report that details the "continuing and serious psychological injury" inflicted on Vicky.

In Vicky's statement, she wrote that she sleeps poorly and suffers panic attacks that drove her away from college. The statement identifies her father as the party who "did the abuse."

Vicky will not testify at Ontiveros' sentencing because of "recent severe psychological trauma from attending multiple sentencing hearings" for other offenders, Trumbull-Harris wrote.

Federal law mandates a minimum sentence of five years in prison for Ontiveros at sentencing, which is scheduled for Jan. 14. Truitt argues in a sentencing memorandum filed last week that Van Bokkelen should hand Ontiveros the minimum, a term that would fall below advisory sentencing guidelines, to be followed by five years of mental health treatment.