Former U.S. attorney worried about Sandefur's sentencing

I am supporting Kristen Juras for the Montana Supreme Court for a number of reasons. One of them is her opponent’s record on sentencing defendants convicted in criminal cases involving possession of child pornography and other offenses with children as the intended victims.

During my term as United States attorney, Montana led the way as part of a national Department of Justice initiative called Project Safe Childhood. It had a simple goal: increase the number of investigations and prosecutions of producers and possessors of child pornography and “travelers.” The internet and file-sharing services caused both crimes to explode in the last 15 years. Child pornography involves pictures and videos of the sexual exploitation of kids, oftentimes pre-pubescent children.

The name of the offense is not graphic enough. Child pornography involves sexual abuse of children that is recorded and, typically, distributed. Unfortunately, the market for new images results in additional acts of sexual abuse of children. Traveler cases involve adults who respond to online or print solicitations suggesting that a child is available to engage in sex. The adult who responds to the advertisement, then travels to meet the child to complete the transaction. Unfortunately, despite sting operations and considerable media attention, we still have Montana adults who want to have sex with 12-year-olds.

Dirk Sandefur does not have a good record on these types of cases from his time as a state district judge. I will mention two cases, but there are others that space does not allow me to discuss. At the age of 59, Curtis Aaberg traveled from Valier to Great Falls with the idea that he would pay money to have sex with a 12-year old girl. He learned about this opportunity on a website called Backpage.com, but the ad was placed by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in Great Falls. Last year, the Cascade County Attorney sought a 25 year sentence for Aaberg in the Montana State Prison with 10 years suspended. Judge Sandefur rejected the recommendation and did not impose incarceration. Mr. Aaberg is on probation. This sentence does little to deter those who may be considering whether to meet underage children for sexual gratification.

Earlier this year, he sentenced James Daniels to no prison time even though (1) he possessed 1,800 child pornography images of 39 children, and (2) the psychosexual evaluation assessed Daniels to be a moderate risk to reoffend. Under the statute, he could have received a 10-year prison sentence. In his written judgment, Judge Sandefur stated that there was no evidence the children in the images were victimized in Montana or that the images were produced in Montana. This rationale for the judgment is troubling. The defendant is not deemed to be low risk, yet he is not incarcerated. Whether the images involve victims in Montana is irrelevant. A sentence like the one imposed on Mr. Daniels does little to deter others from committing a child pornography crime.

According to the Great Falls Tribune, during the sentencing hearing, Judge Sandefur asked, “Are the consumers aware of the victimization of children?” Possessors of child pornography collect the images precisely because they want to observe children being sexually abused. It is not a victimless crime. The victims of child pornographers live with the reality that people all over the world are viewing the images of when they were being sexually abused and that the same images may be used to entice other children to engage in sex with adults. Montanans should think hard about whether the sentence protects the public while advancing the other purposes of punishment.

Mercer, of Billings, served as United States attorney for Montana from 2001 to 2009.