The boy who was facing felony charges for possessing nude photos of himself has agreed to a plea deal.
As a reminder, the 17-year-old was charged with both taking and possessing sexually explicit photos of a minor. But the pictures were of himself, meaning the minor in both cases was him. In this case, he was both adult and minor, perpetrator and victim. If convicted, the teen could have potentially spent years in prison.
Like 95 percent of criminal defendants, he pled to a lesser charge rather than go to trial and risk years of prison over pictures of himself. According to the Fayetteville Observer:
District Court Judge April Smith sentenced [him] to a year of probation. During that year, her order says, [he] must stay in school, take a class on making good decisions, complete 30 hours of community service, not use or possess alcohol or illegal drugs, not possess a cellphone, and must submit to warrantless searches.
If [he] complies with the punishment, District Attorney Billy West's office in September 2016 will dismiss the misdemeanor. This will prevent a conviction from going on his record.
While it's a relief that this boy is not going to prison and has the opportunity to expunge this from his record, it is still ridiculous that he is forced to deal with any criminal sanctions. And insisting on warrantless phone searches is a violation of his privacy. Including that provision as a part of his probation because he had naked pictures of himself is absurd.
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