When  Turk first alerted me to Leo Flynn’s defense, my reaction was “feh.”  The 62 year old lawyer was going on trial for having downloaded child porn.  His defense was an old one, that he wasn’t looking at it for his own benefit, but on behalf of a client. 

Leo Flynn, 62, does not fit the profile of someone who possesses and distributes child pornography, federal jurors were told today, the first day of the trial. He didn’t compile a huge collection of photo and video files, and he viewed pornography only on his work computer, never at home.

Yet, he admitted to investigators that he was searching the Internet and the file-sharing service Limewire for hardcore child pornography about once a week…

It’s unclear what that means.  Are men who view kiddie porn supposed to wear tattered clothing and drool?  Does that cover priests as well.  And how many pics and vids of hardcore kiddie porn does one have to collect before it counts?

Flynn’s defense was facile.  It was just research.

Flynn told investigators at least two clients had asked his advice about child pornography, and he sought out the material on his own so he could offer an informed opinion. They asked him why he went back to Limewire and child pornography websites so frequently.

“I can’t answer that other than to say I just started looking and watching and looking and watching and finding different things and being surprised,” he answered.

Clients have asked me for advice about kiddie porn.  Miraculously, I’ve managed to advise them well without weekly scanning the internet and amassing any collection, huge or otherwise, of hardcore images.  I grasp the concept.  I don’t need to see the images.  There is absolutely nothing about the images that would affect or alter my advice.

The trial is over.  Leo Flynn prevailed.

Flynn’s lawyer, Rory Durkin, convinced the jury that each time Flynn downloaded the illegal images and videos, he was doing so in order to provide legal advice to clients.

Flynn’s lawyer friends used to call him the “perv attorney” because he defended a lot of people accused of sex crimes.

Flynn will now return to the practice of law.

In defending a client against possession of a particular image, it’s critical to be able to see the image in question.  Whether it makes the lawyer wretch in disgust or drool with erotic glee is another matter, but one cannot defend a person without knowing what he’s defending against.  That wasn’t the case here.

Flynn was surfing the ‘net, and a regular at Limewire, in search of images that were not the subject of client indictments.  Had it been otherwise, the images would have been part of discovery, not a matter of seeking them out on his own.  Moreover, his explanation was about giving “advise,” not defending charges.  I can only speculate about what advice was sought that could in any way explain the need to surf Limewire, but none of it seems reasonable or acceptable.

And yet Leo Flynn was acquitted. 

Sadly, there are many out there who argue the point of whether kiddie porn should be legal and acceptable.  People should be free to do whatever pleases them, no matter his sick and disgusting.  That it happens to involve adults engaging in sex acts on children doesn’t seem to enter into the equation.  “Maybe they consented,” they say.  Spare me.

The knee-jerk reaction of criminal defense lawyers to an acquittal is to hoot and holler.  They are too few to do otherwise.  But not all acquittals leave the same taste in one’s mouth.  This one is sour.  It’s not up to me to question the bona fides of the defense, as a Sioux Falls jury accepted it.  I accept their verdict.

But the question still lingers, is it appropriate for a lawyer to take it upon himself to “research” child pornography in order to advise clients?  Is it necessary to do so on his own, week after week, to go surfing the web, file-sharing sites, and download such images to his computer?  No one can truly see into another person’s mind and soul, but there has to be limits to participating in such conduct. 

Leo Flynn will return to the practice of law.  He now has a far clearer understanding of what it’s like to sit in the defendant’s seat, to await the verdict of a jury, to wonder whether a minute from now, his life as he knows it will be over or he will allowed to walk out of the courtroom a free man.  There’s much to be said about a lawyer who can appreciate what his clients endure.

But Leo Flynn chose to research kiddie porn by viewing and downloading images, week after week.  I don’t care to meet him for a drink or have him over for dinner.  He may not be guilty, but I don’t believe he’s innocent.