Cops Back Off Plan to Photograph Boy's Erection

They won't serve warrant in Virginia sexting case
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 11, 2014 12:57 AM CDT
Cops Back Off From Plan to Photograph Boy's Erection
   (Shutterstock)

Sanity appears to have prevailed in Manassas, Virginia, where authorities had planned to chemically induce an erection in a 17-year-old boy accused of making child pornography by sending explicit photos of himself to his 15-year-old girlfriend. Police had obtained a search warrant allowing them to take photographs of the teen's erect penis, but they now say that plan has been dropped and the warrant will be allowed to expire, the Washington Post reports. The teen's aunt, his legal guardian, says he has spent the last few weeks in West Virginia out of fear that police would enforce the warrant.

An ACLU spokeswoman says taking the photos would have raised serious constitutional issues and she has never heard of a similar case. "People have a constitutional right to control their bodies," she tells the AP. The city manager of Manassas says angry phone calls about the case have been coming in from around the country. He downplays the possibility that the photos would ever have been taken, but the teen's aunt says police wouldn't have backed off without the criticism. "They would have gotten away with this. They were not going to back off," she says. The aunt says she's glad police are dropping the plan, but she won't be satisfied until they drop what she says are overblown felony charges of manufacture and possession of child pornography. (More sexting stories.)

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