You may remember the story of Lisa Biron, the Manchester, New Hampshire lawyer affiliated with the Alliance Defending Freedom (formerly the Alliance Defense Fund) who took a 14-year-old girl to Canada and filmed her engaging in extremely graphic sexual activity. Well, she was found guilty late last week on eight federal charges of transporting a minor with intent to film porn, child exploitation and possession of child porn. She could face as much as 100 years in prison, and is going to prison for at least 25 years when she's sentenced in April. I did some digging on the case, and based on what I found she should probably get close to the maximum.
To begin with, according to the Associated Press, the victim is her own daughter.
The trial lasted only two days but jurors were presented with a series of sexually explicit videos that prosecutors said the mother made of her daughter having sex with two men on different occasions, and a video of the mother performing oral sex on her daughter in May 2012.
Juror Peter Evans of Manchester said it was a difficult case to deliberate, "but the evidence was pretty overwhelming."
"I feel confident we made the right decision," Evans said. "She's going to deserve whatever she gets."
For once, I'm speechless. What kind of sick, depraved bitch would even think of doing this to her own child? No doubt the New Hampshire teen who first reported Biron's crimes to police
must have been wondering the same thing.
A former Merrimack teen, Brandon Ore, 18, testified he met Biron when he answered a Craigslist personal ad, "2 girls looking to party, 18 and 33."
He said he had sex with Biron the first time he went to her house in July 2012, and she told him to bring a friend the next time because her "roommate" would be there. Ore testified he brought a friend the next five or six times he went to Biron's Pratt Court residence. He said he had sex with the young girl, and his friends had sex with Biron.
Ore also
testified that when he briefly moved in with the two "roommates," he frequently had sex with Biron while her daughter was watching. By the end of the summer, he found out that the two "roommates" were really mother and daughter--and that the "18-year-old" was really a 14-year-old.
He reported Biron to the Manchester police in September. Incredibly, Biron tried to get him to recant and tell police he'd filed a false report. She was arrested 10 days later, and taken into federal custody almost a month later while awaiting arraignment on state charges of possessing child porn. She's been in jail ever since after openly flouting several state bond conditions.
Prosecutors asked Biron's ex-husband to identify the voices on one of the tapes. When he identified one voice as Biron's and the other as his daughter's, he was so overcome by emotion that he couldn't stand to listen anymore. Small wonder that the jury took only an hour to convict Biron.
The jurors were also swayed by the testimony of a Canadian man who had sex with Biron's daughter.
Kevin Watson, of Ontario, Canada, was 19 when he connected with the girl over the Internet. He testified that what began as online sex through the video chat program Skype culminated in a Niagara Falls hotel room last Memorial Day weekend.
The jury was shown three videos of Watson having sex with the then-14-year-old victim, which Watson said were taken by Biron. The images were shielded from the public, but the audio was not.
A woman's voice could be heard saying, "It takes practice, baby. It's not so easy," and, "Oh my God. That's the first time my voice has been heard on tape. I'm an idiot."
Watson testified that Biron was the one talking.
Apparently Canadian authorities granted Watson immunity from prosecution in return for testifying against Biron in the States. According to FBI forensic examiner James Scripture, Biron used it to create a "keepsake" video of her daughter losing her virginity. And yet, this woman had the gall to berate her daughter over the phone and blame her for what happened.
This is one woman who doesn't need to ever be allowed among us again. Anything less than a 40-year sentence would be a bad joke.
9:16 AM PT: I was shaking so much with anger in reading about the trial that I almost didn't mention how sick at heart I feel for the daughter. According to the AP, she's in foster care right now. In all likelihood she's going to need years of counseling--maybe for the rest of her life.
1:32 PM PT: Specifically, Biron was convicted of one count of transporting a minor with intent to commit criminal sexual activity (minimum of 10 years), six counts of child exploitation (minimum of 15 years per count) and one count of possession of child porn (maximum of 10 years). To give you an idea of the trouble Biron's in, based on the Sentencing Guidelines Calculator she could potentially face 24 years per count on the exploitation charges alone. I have to wonder why she even let this go to trial.