Guy Who Didn't Actually Sing Obscene Song To Kids Gets Jail Time & Restraining Order As If He Did

from the logic-people? dept

Here's a follow up to a story we posted a few months ago, about college student Evan Emory, who put together an admittedly sophomoric video on YouTube that made it look like he was singing a sexually explicit song to elementary school kids. He didn't actually sing that song to the kids. He did sing perfectly reasonable childrens' songs to the kids, and only later filmed the explicit song in an otherwise empty classroom -- and then, for fun, edited the two together. While this does seem childish, it's hardly unique. In fact, the very same thing is quite frequently done on various TV shows and in movies. Yet, in this case, the guy was arrested and was facing 20 years in prison for "manufacturing child sexual abusive material."

Well, now, as pointed out by Radley Balko, Emory has been sentenced to 60 days in jail, 3 years probation and must remain 500 feet from minors. He does not have to put his name on the sex offender registry.

And yet, the parents of the children are still angry. A news report from the courtroom shows a father complaining that the sentence isn't enough, and how his daughter is traumatized by the whole thing. But... that leads to the obvious question of how she even heard the song in the first place. She was not present. Everyone is acting as if he actually sang the song to these kids when he did not. Emory's own lawyer calls the plea deal "fitting," but honestly it seems silly. Yes, the video he put together was childish and stupid, but does that really deserve jail time?

Filed Under: evan emory

Musician/Comedian Faces 20 Years In Jail For Silly Video No Different Than Done On TV & In Movies

from the that's-not-right dept

Slashdot points us to yet another example of overzealous prosecutors going after someone with felony charges for a joke (perhaps done in poor taste). In this case, it involves 21-year-old musician/comedian Evan Emory, who performed childrens' songs in front of some elementary school kids. Later that day, after everyone else had left, he also performed and recorded another song with sexually explicit lyrics. He then cut the footage of the two songs together, to make it look like he was singing the explicit song to the kids. This is, admittedly, in extremely poor taste -- but as the Slashdot post notes, it's no different than what has been regularly done on various TV shows and in movies. The Slashdot post has even more examples, but those three all seem to be pretty "mainstream" and well-known examples of this tactic.

Yet, when Emory did it, he was arrested, charged with a felony for "manufacturing child sexual abusive material" and now faces 20 years in prison. Emory appears to be deeply remorseful, and notes that he obviously never intended to harm any kids, and searches of his house and computer showed no evidence of any actual child porn. But it doesn't seem to have stopped prosecutors from their plans to charge him with this felony. The prosecutor seems to be willfully ignoring the intent of the video:

"If you insinuate that you want to have sex with young children in Muskegon County and put that in the Internet, you've got a problem with the law," Tague said.

"As prosecutor of Muskegon County, I feel I have a strong obligation to vigorously defend all the children in our county. To insinuate on a tape that you want to perform perverted acts on children is clearly within the scope of the law with which Mr. Emory is charged."

Except, of course, Emory did not insinuate he wanted to have sex with those kids. It was a (crass and tasteless) joke video. I'm all for law enforcement prosecuting real child abusers to the fullest extent possible under the law. But going after folks like Emory here seems to make a mockery of the law, and take away efforts from stopping those who actually do want to do harm to children.

Filed Under: comedy, evan emory, felony, video