A disclaimer: child pornography is really bad. An educator possessing child pornography is really, really bad. People are assumed innocent until proven guilty.

I feel like the latest report on former Teaneck High School Principal Joe White's upcoming trial, raises some questions:

Ex-principal's computer may hold child porn

Bergen County prosecutors said Monday that they might seek another indictment against former Teaneck High School Principal Joseph White for images they said they found on his home computer that "may" include child pornography.

"We found over 600 images of gay porn, including 15 that are questionable," Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Patricia Baglivi told a judge in Hackensack.

Some of the subjects in the 15 images are clearly in their teens, and detectives are trying to determine whether they are under the age of 16, Baglivi said. If the subjects are deemed underage, White could face fourth-degree charges of possession of child pornography, she said.

Defense lawyer William Ware called the allegations "outrageous."

1) What collection of 600 pornographic images doesn't contain 15 actors who could pass for teens? I can't speak for gay pornography (unless you count lesbians as "gay", unlike pornographers), but there are a ton of actresses/models in the 18-21 age group.

2) How would a detective, physician or anyone tell the difference between an 16-year-old and an 18-year-old on the basis of a photo? Unless it's really obvious (like a small child), I figure you'd have to identify the actual person.

Per 1010 WINS, this sounds like very speculative:

In child-pornography cases involving teens whose exact ages cannot be ascertained, doctors inspect the body development of those in the images and make a determination as to whether they are under 16.

If a doctor concludes that a person in the image is under 16 - and a grand jury agrees - the defense can then hire its own doctor to counter that conclusion during trial.

3) How can there be a gag order on the defendant and his lawyer when the media reports on every claim the prosecutors make in court? Certainly, them responding to these awful accusations does no more to bias potential jurors than the media report does.

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