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LAKELAND, FLA--The second time around was a charm for the former police officer turned website operator when the 2nd District Court of Appeals reviewed the bail petition of Christopher Wilson.
The 3-judge court unanimously ordered Thursday that Wilson be released immediately and his bail reinstated but didn't state its reasoning, saying a written opinion would follow. Although written opinions of the court are posted at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, as of 6 p.m. Friday there still was no written opinion posted on the DCA website.
Wilson, 28, was being held in the Polk County Jail on 301 obscenity charges, arrested in October for photos and videos showing alleged sexual contact on a website he operated. Wilson had allegedly allowed U.S. soldiers to post pictures of war dead on the his website in exchange for access to alleged pornographic materials on the site. The charges against him are unrelated to the war scene images posted by soldiers.
Polk County Judge Grady Judd described the photos at Wilson's website as the "most horrific, vile, perverted sexual conduct….as we've ever investigated".
He had been free on $151,000 bail since his October arrest but trial court judge J. Dale Durrance revoked his bail and sent him to jail in mid-December after seeing 30 photos and videos from the site, ordered him held without bail until at least February, ruling that Wilson had violated his pretrial release by allowing new sexually explicit photographs to be posted to the site. Durrance determined that there was probable cause to believe that the materials would be determined obscene.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, the Free Speech Coalition and the First Amendment Lawyers Association asked the 2nd District Court of Appeals via emergency petition to release Wilson for Christmas but the DCA refused pending a full hearing.
Thereafter the Florida Supreme Court rejected an emergency motion that Wilson's Orlando attorney. Larry Walters, filed seeking bail. Walters then asked the U.S. Supreme Court in an email filing to consider the matter but on Christmas Day, the high court rejected Wilson's attempt to reverse Durrance's ruling.
After a hearing, the DCA ordered Wilson's immediate release and he left the jail later Thursday.
Wilson made headlines in recent months when U.S. military officials discovered that soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan were sending him gruesome images of war in exchange for free access to a site that allows members of the public to post and view amateur pornographic photos and videos. Wilson, who operated the site from his Lakeland home, then posted the violent war photos on the site as a way to help spark debate about U.S. politics.
Wilson, his attorney and others claim that he has a First Amendment right to allow alleged pornographic materials to be posted on his site.
According to the Polk County sheriff, 20 films and 80 photos are involved in the charges against Wilson but none involve photographs of war dead. The controversial website has obtained international attention and the sheriff said that sheriff's investigators had spoken with officials from the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division regarding Wilson.
Prior to his arrest, Judge Judd ruled there was probable cause that the films and photos in question were obscene as under the law, in order to make an arrest under the obscenity statute, a judge must first make a determination that the material in question is obscene. A search warrant was issued and investigators seized computers from Wilson's home. 12-30-05
© 2005 North
Country Gazette
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