Allegations of child abuse are among the most emotionally charged cases a Maryland criminal attorney will see during the span of his or her career. Public outrage and the protection of the child are often pitted against the constitutional rights of a defendant who is supposed to be considered innocent until guilt is proven. The recent sentencing of a Maryland man convicted of child pornography shows that child abuse and child sexual assaults are not taken lightly in the judicial system.
Jason Emory Gilmer, 29, who has been in police custody since his May 2009 arrest, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for two counts of production of child pornography and distribution of child pornography. He is additionally sentenced to lifetime supervision after his release.
According to a plea agreement arranged by his Maryland criminal lawyer, Gilmer was investigated by police after an FBI agent downloaded several pornographic images of children from a file-sharing program on Gilmer's computer. During the investigation, agents seized Gilmer's computer, which was found to contain over 750 images of child pornography, including sexually explicit photos of two girls, aged 12 and 14, over whom he had supervisory custody. The 12-year-old girl is learning disabled, and the 14-year-old is autistic. Documents report that the younger girl told police Gilmer had photographed her naked, and Gilmer admitted to taking sexually explicit pictures of the older girl.
In addition to his convictions for production and distribution of child pornography, Gilmer still faces other state charges.
Gilmer was in custody over a year from the time of his arrest until his sentencing. In cases of child sexual abuse, certain constitutional rights of the accused are balanced against the protection of the child. In many instances, the defendant is denied the right to face his or her accuser, and while a person accused of sex abuse is supposed to be considered innocent unless proven guilty, the opposite is often true in the court of public opinion. Understanding how the criminal justice system is supposed to work in such cases, Maryland criminal lawyers fight to help their clients protect their constitutional rights through the judicial process.
