EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, New Jersey (AP) ? An architecture professor arrested after firefighters battling a blaze at his Jersey shore home found a 1970s magazine depicting naked prepubescent girls plans to seek dismissal of the child pornography charge though a pretrial intervention program, his lawyer said Friday.
Attorney Hal Haveson told The Associated Press that Gamal El-Zoghby acknowledges the magazine found by firefighters Tuesday was his. But the 76-year-old professor at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York City, bought it decades ago and hasn't looked at it since, the attorney said.
"It was stuff he had discarded from his mind, just not from his home," Haveson said.
The magazine in question was but one of a collection of 60 or 70 magazines found by firefighters who responded to a blaze at El-Zoghby's waterfront home just before noon Tuesday, Haveson said. State police said only one magazine contained images of naked prepubescent girls.
The attorney wouldn't directly address why El-Zoghby had originally obtained the magazine, other than to say, "He had a reasonable, non-prurient explanation for that. It was not because he enjoyed child pornography." He declined to comment further.
The lawyer also said he's not sure that what's in the magazine meets the legal definition of child pornography. A lot depends on whether the images are intended to appeal to prurient or sexual interests, he said.
"My client doesn't know because he hasn't seen this in decades," he said.
The architect had intended for years to throw away the magazine but never did, his attorney said.
El-Zoghby is due in Eagleswood municipal court on Wednesday for a brief hearing, at which the judge is expected to refer the case to state Superior Court, Haveson said.
Ultimately, El-Zoghby will apply for New Jersey's pretrial intervention program, which lets certain first-time offenders charged with nonviolent crimes have their criminal record wiped clean if they complete the program and stay out of trouble. Prosecutors would have to agree to let him enter the program in order to avoid a trial.
"This is all stuff from the 1970s; that's really important," Haveson said. "What someone does in their younger years does not define the man. He is not a collector of child pornography. My client had not paid any attention to this in decades."
Associated Presssanta tracker patrice oneal monkey bread letter from santa sweet potato pie sweet potato pie twas the night before christmas
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.