ATTLEBORO, Massachusetts – from www.thesunchronicle.com – A 41-year-old Attleboro mother is facing child pornography-related charges after she allegedly agreed – in a bid for modeling work – to pose her 10-year-old daughter nude in an online video connection with a man she thought was a legitimate photographer in Florida.
The woman denied the allegations and was released on $2,500 cash bail, and the man she thought was a photographer was arrested in Iowa and faces federal child pornography charges.
The woman – who The Sun Chronicle is not naming to protect the identity of her daughter – left Attleboro District Court weeping Tuesday, and says she was duped and a victim who now faces criminal charges.
“There are sickos out there, and they let them go. But I get locked up. I’m a victim,” the woman said in a brief interview.
But prosecutors say the woman crossed the line with her daughter after the man promised her $20,000 and a trip to Florida for her and her daughter to pose for bathing suit photos. The woman told police she sent out photos of herself online last month, looking for modeling work, when she received a response from a photographer in Pembroke Pines, Fla., a city of 150,000 about 20 miles northwest of Miami.
The man expressed an interest in photographing her daughter, too, but insisted that he had to see the daughter nude to assess her body type, police said.
After some hesitation, the woman ultimately agreed to allow the man to see her daughter via a Skype connection.
Skype allows for two-way video chatting, but the man told the mother his camera was broken, so she could not see him, police said.
The woman turned herself in to police Tuesday morning with her lawyer after an investigation by detectives Sgt. Arthur Brillon and Russell Castro and Patrolman Neil Bailey with the assistance of a computer expert at the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Postal Inspectors Service.
Police began the investigation early last month after they received a tip. The woman was interviewed by police and she allowed them to seize her computer in the still ongoing investigation. The state Department of Children and Families is investigating, and the woman’s daughter and a minor sibling are in the custody of their father. The mother has been ordered to stay away from the children, DCF spokeswoman Kaynne Isaksen said.
As part of her bail condition, Judge Daniel O’Shea ordered the woman to obey all requirements set by DCF.
Assistant District Attorney Mark Donovan requested $25,000 cash bail, based on the seriousness of the charges and the circumstances of the case.
The woman’s lawyer, Ernest Solomon of Fitchburg, said his client was a married mother and “a model citizen” with no criminal record.
“She doesn’t even have a traffic ticket,” Solomon said.
He said the woman cooperated with police, and that authorities identified the supposed photographer in the ongoing investigation with his client’s help.
“He insisted to her it would be a swimsuit shoot,” Solomon said.
Solomon said he could not respond to detailed questions because the case remains under investigation.
He did say, however, the allegations that his client posed her daughter nude “are not completely true, but we’ll get to that at trial.”
The woman faces charges of posing a child in the nude, indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and reckless endangerment of a child.
Last week, U.S. Postal Inspectors arrested a suspect, Joshua B. Dunfee. He is now in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and faces arraignment in U.S. District Court in Boston, where documents related to his arrest are currently sealed.
He faces federal child pornography charges, according to a copy of the arrest warrant.