Ex-prosecutor defends his work helping child-porn defendants

He helps defense lawyers exploit a loophole in the law.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- For some, ex-prosecutor Dean Boland represents the right of every defendant to good legal representation.
But for others, his work as an expert witness on behalf of child-pornography defendants amounts to a descent into a "dirty, unhealthy world" that will tarnish his reputation.
Boland, 37, of nearby Lakewood, is a former assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor in Cleveland. More recently, he has testified as a defense expert in three child-pornography cases in northeast Ohio and one federal case in Tulsa, Okla.
Charges were thrown out in two of the Ohio cases. A judge in Tulsa is expected to rule Tuesday on the constitutionality of a federal law that requires a defendant to "knowingly" possess pornographic images of children in order to be convicted.
Boland has expertise in digital-imaging technology and the ways pornographers use it to enhance and distribute their wares via the Internet.
What started for Boland as a hobby while playing around on his home computer evolved into a career specialty while working as an assistant to Prosecutor Bill Mason, who has been wondering what happened with his former prot & eacute;g & eacute;.
"Dean has gone to the dark side," Mason said. "If you start to creep into this dirty, unhealthy world, you're going to look like a part of that world.
"In reality, what he's trying to do is help these child-predators get off. He's going to have to live with that stain on his reputation."
Loophole
Boland has teamed with criminal defense lawyers who are exploiting a provision of Ohio law that says to obtain a conviction, a prosecutor must prove that a digital portrait of suspected child pornography is, in fact, a picture of a child.
To meet that requirement, the image must be authenticated as a child and not an adult digitally enhanced to look like a child.
Without such evidence to contradict Boland's testimony, judges threw out child-pornography charges in Akron and Ravenna in March. A Columbiana County judge in Lisbon has reserved his ruling until trial.
Boland, a married father of three and a self-styled conservative, resents being portrayed as "the child-porn guy" by former colleagues.
"It's easy to demonize me," he said, "but from my perspective, I'm not out there testifying about child porn. I'm testifying about the technology of digital imaging."
The law makes a distinction between photographs and digital images of sexual acts involving adults and the same activities involving children.
Pictures and images of adults that would be legal for adults to possess could be crimes punishable by up to eight years in prison per image if they involve children.
Courtroom exhibit
Boland has developed a computerized courtroom exhibit that he uses to demonstrate how, with a $650 software program, adults can be digitally morphed into appearing as if they are children, and vice versa.
Lewis Katz, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, said he has talked with his former student about his fear of reprisals. He considers criticism of Boland's work "a travesty."
"This is extraordinary for them to turn on him because he is providing a service to people charged with these crimes," Katz said.