Possessing, making, or distributing child pornography is charged as Sexual Exploitation of a Child in Denver, Aurora, and Castle Rock. Sometimes, when the State of Colorado works to find those downloading and sharing child porn, they will also work with the FBI to track down the electronic footprints and IP addresses. Sometimes the federal government criminally charges the cases, and other times the state takes care of them. Recently, we have seen DA's use the threat of passing a case to the feds in order to resolve the case quickly in district court. For example, the DA will propose a plea agreement and then state that if the client isn't willing to take the deal, they will pass the case on to federal court, where a person will likely serve more time. They use this threat to get people to agree to their terms, because they have essentially backed them into a corner and their bad deal becomes the best option. 

Douglas County Sexual Exploitation of Children Attorney: Possession of Child Porn

Most commonly, we see charges for Sexual Exploitation of a Child – C.R.S. 18-6-403 – for possession or distribution of child porn. Usually, the possession comes from downloading pornographic videos and images of children. Distribution is often charged when a person is using a file sharing program to download images and videos. Those P2P sharing programs allow others to access what you have downloaded or are downloading, to download the items to their computers. This is considered distributing or distribution. 

Sentence for Sexual Exploitation of a Child: The Charges Can Keep Adding Up 

For possession of child pornography, it is a class 4 felony if you possess over 20 different images or videos. When someone has hundreds or even thousands of these types of images on their computer or hard drives, they can face numerous charges of Sexual Exploitation of a Child (possession).  Distribution of child porn is a class 3 felony, and depending on the number of times or instances a file was shared, multiple charges can be filed under this subsection as well. The DA's office will file multiple charges to up the potential sentence.  

If you or someone you love has been charged with Sexual Exploitation of a Child, be smart, exercise your right to remain silent, and contact the best criminal defense attorneys from the O'Malley Law Office at 303-830-0880 to schedule your free consultation. Together, we can protect your future.

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