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Sentence Hinges On Whether Pictures Are Child Porn

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI, The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 8, 2008

Updated: 01/08/2008 12:12 am

TAMPA - Child pornography may be in the eyes the beholder.

Two pediatricians had trouble during a hearing Monday in federal court determining whether the pictures deleted from a defendant's computer depicted children. The doctors were testifying in a sentencing hearing for Ronald Mays.

Mays was convicted last year of abusive sexual contact with a child while on an airplane and obstruction of justice. The first charge involved allegations that Mays molested an 8-year-old girl on an airplane. The second charge stemmed from Mays' deletion of computer files while he was being investigated.

U.S. District Judge Steven D. Merryday later overturned the sexual contact conviction, ruling he should not have allowed a prosecution witness to testify that Mays had deleted child pornography from his computer.

Prosecutors opted not to pursue another trial on the sexual contact charge, saying they didn't want to put the girl through having to testify again.

Now, Merryday must determine a sentence for Mays for the obstruction of justice conviction. Trying to minimize the length, the defense is arguing that the images Mays deleted were, in fact, not child pornography.

"He deleted this stuff because it was adult pornography and he was embarrassed about it," defense attorney James Felman said.

Both sides presented testimony from pediatricians, who struggled to determine whether 10 of the deleted pictures depicted children.

Prosecution witness William Brooks said at least nine of the pictures depict children under 18 years old, and several of them were clearly younger than 13.

Defense witness Philip Adler said it was possible that many of the photos depicted 18-year-olds, although he said two of them were under 18.

After hearing the testimony, with more witnesses expected, the judge ended the sentencing hearing, later ordering that it resume on Jan. 23.

Mays has denied possessing any child pornography. Speaking outside another hearing in October, an agitated Mays said he "never, ever looked at child pornography in my life. They're talking about a total of 10 images in my laptop," he said. "I didn't put any of them in there."

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837 or esilvestrini@tampatrib.com.

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