November 6, 2015 at 4:53 p.m.
Chagnon sentenced to prison on misdemeanor charges
Chagnon sentenced to prison on misdemeanor charges
Albert J. Chagnon was charged in October 2014 with 23 counts of intentionally photographing a minor without consent and four counts of violating state/county institution laws. While an appeals court later ordered the dismissal of the felony counts, Chagnon still faced prison time because a repeater enhancer was added to all of the charges, according to Winnebago County deputy district attorney Scott Ceman. The repeater enhancer adds up to two years in prison to the possible 30-day jail term each of the class C misdemeanors normally carry.
Chagnon entered no contest pleas Friday morning to three of the misdemeanor counts. The fourth count was read in for sentencing purposes. Ceman recommended that Judge Scott Woldt sentence Chagnon to three years in prison followed by three years extended supervision. On each count, Woldt sentenced Chagnon to one year in prison followed by one year of extended supervision, to be served consecutively, with credit for 394 days served, according to online court records. This means Chagnon will have to serve 701 days in prison before starting his supervision.
According to the criminal complaint, as Chagnon was being processed for discharge from prison, officials found a notebook containing photographs of fully clothed girls that he had clipped from The Lakeland Times and other publications.
Some of the photos were accompanied by written commentary of a graphic and sexual nature.
Chagnon had been scheduled for a one-day jury trial Nov. 10 on the four misdemeanor charges after the State Court of Appeals agreed with Chagnon's lawyer, Raymond Edelstein, who argued that the 23 felonies should be dismissed because they were charged under a statute that prohibits sex offenders from "intentionally capturing a representation" of a minor without the written consent of the child's parent, legal guardian or custodian.
Edelstein successfully argued that "intentionally capturing a representation" means the sex offender, Chagnon in this case, actually took the photos. In its written decision, the appeals court said the Legislative Reference Bureau's analysis of 2005 Assembly Bill 251, which was the source of the statute under which Chagnon was charged, states: "This bill prohibits persons who are required to register as sex offenders from intentionally photographing, filming, or videotaping any person under the age of 17 unless the parent, custodian, or guardian of the person under the age of 17 provides written consent."
In addition, Chagnon did not store the "data" of the visual representations because that would have entailed digital storage, the court noted.
The appeals panel composed of judges Paul B. Higginbotham, Paul Lundsten, and Gary Sherman, with Sherman writing the decision, agreed with Edelstein and sent the matter back to Woldt who had denied Edelstein's motion to dismiss the felony charges.
Even if Ceman wanted to fine-tune the felony charges against Chagnon, the Court of Appeals, in a different case, ruled that outside of certain specific conditions, the entire statute was unconstitutionally overly broad.
Jamie Taylor may be reached at [email protected].
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