Charged with Pandering Obscenity Involving
a Minor in Dayton?
Get the Defense
You Need.

To convict you, the prosecution has to show beyond reasonable doubt that you were involved in pandering obscenity of a minor at some level. For these cases, a minor means anyone under 18. The prosecution has to demonstrate that you were involved with child pornography in any of the following ways:

• Trading
• Creating
• Selling
• Buying
• Advertising
• Distributing
• Publicly displaying

All pandering obscenity involving a minor charges are felonies and carry the risk of being a sex offender for the rest of your life.

Obscene materials are those that show sexual deviancy with the purpose of arousing sexual excitement. Depicting human bodily functions is one type, along with any nudity-oriented material that presents the human body as an object of sexual appetite.

Ohio law utilizes the Miller test when considering obscene material, assessing:

• Whether the average person would find that the work appeals to prurient interest.
• Whether the work describes or depicts sexual conduct mentioned by state law.
• Whether the work lacks serious literary, artistic, scientific, or political value.

If the answer is yes to all these, the work is considered to be obscene.

You can be charged with a fourth-degree felony if you buy, control, or hold obscene material involving a minor. Fourth-degree felony penalties include anywhere from six to 18 months in jail and a maximum of $5,000 in fines. You must also register twice a year as a sex offender for 25 years.

Third-degree felony involves the same charges as a fourth-degree felony but applies to repeat offenders. Repeat offenders face up to five years in prison and fines of $10,000, as well as having to deal with embarrassing public registration requirements.

The most severe conviction you can receive for a pandering obscenity charge involving a minor is a second-degree felony. You can face up to eight years in prison and a $15,000 fine. You will need to register as a sex offender for 25 years.

If you’re convicted of pandering obscenity involving a minor, you have to register twice a year for 25 years as a sex offender. This means you will be restricted in where you can live and what jobs you can take. It’s one of the most serious consequences of being convicted of pandering obscenity charges.

Convicted offenders carry the felony charge their whole lives while also being registered sex offenders. There can be legal and social implications. You won’t be allowed to live within a certain distance from schools, and you won’t be able to take jobs where you come into contact with children. With a conviction, you can’t live in assisted living facilities, either.

The Miller test is subjective, and we can use that to our advantage. An experienced criminal defense attorney can argue that the material was suggestive. We can show that it may not meet the average person’s idea of prurient content by contemporary community standards or that stating whether something offers artistic, literary, political, or scientific value is debatable.

If the material had a legitimate use, it can’t be considered obscene. Your legal counsel can argue that the materials could have artistic value or that they may be used for bona fide medical purposes. Without obscene materials, you can’t be charged with pandering obscenity involving a minor.

Entrapment is a legal defense that claims a person was coerced by law enforcement into committing a crime they would not have otherwise committed. An example would be if an undercover police officer pushed you into downloading obscene materials to your computer. If you weren’t predisposed to getting that material, we could claim entrapment.

Another option available when fighting pandering obscenity involving a minor charges is to state that you weren’t aware you’d obtained obscene materials. You may have downloaded something in bulk without knowing everything the files contained.

An experienced defense attorney can show that you didn’t intentionally seek this material out. You may also not have known the materials involved a minor.

The statute of limitations refers to the maximum amount of time a party has to begin legal proceedings. It ensures cases are brought forward when there’s still viable evidence available. If the prosecution misses this deadline, we can have the case dismissed. The pandering obscenity statute of limitations is six years, though exceptions exist.

For cases involving child pornography or pandering obscenity of a minor, we can also claim that you had unintentional possession of the obscene material. If you share devices, for example, someone else could have downloaded materials without your knowledge. This can be enough to create reasonable doubt and dismantle the prosecution’s case.