Florida Criminal Attorney Blog

Curtis Leo Barber was arrested in West Palm Beach, Florida for possession of child pornography. According to news reports, Curtis Barber worked as a traffic control employee for Palm Beach County. It is unknown if he is represented by a criminal defense lawyer at the present time. As a result of his arrest, he is facing two counts of transmission of child pornography and three counts of computer pornography and child exploitation.

At the present time, Curtis Barber is being held on a $6,000.00 bail bond.

According to a press release by the State Attorney's Office, Barber used a social networking site to transmit sexually explicit messages and photographs to an undercover officer allegedly posing as a 15 year old boy.

Strangely, the two also communicated using web camera sessions over the internet. This may sound like a statement of the obvious, but how did the undercover officer keep up the ruse of being a 15 year old boy if he is an adult?

The press release also mentioned that Curtis Barber engaged in these acts at his county office and using a government issued internet account.

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Rickey Orelle Masters was arrested in Hollywood, Florida for possession of child pornography. He is presently being held on a $55,100 bond. According to news reports, Rickey Masters was arrested after police discovered he had been allegedly sharing child pornography over the internet using a file sharing program.

As a criminal defense lawyer who handles possession of child pornography cases, I can tell you that this scenario is extremely common. In fact, if it were not for file sharing networks, many offenders would go undetected by law enforcement.

However, insofar as Rickey Masters is concerned, his case boils down to three legal issues. First, Masters needs to get a bond posted so he can get out of jail pending resolution of his case.

Possession of child pornography is a very serious offense, however, it is not one that legally requires pretrial detention. While bond in these cases are usually set very high, it is possible to motion the court for a bond reduction.

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The following employees of Time Share Mega Media and Marketing Group ("TMMMG), located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, have been charged in regards to a telemarketing scheme that targeted time-share unit owners throughout the country:

Scott Faraguna, 41, Charles Blomquist, 52, Peter Borkowicz, 31, Raymond Harcar, 39, James Taylor, 23, Ryan Greene, 23, Jason Hampton, 28, Chris Faccone, 43, Steven Sokoloff, 47, Marco Sguera, 30, Joseph Giancola, 38, Ryan Soltow, 27, and Donna Ackermann Brown, 50.

So far, all 13 have been charged with a one-count criminal indictment for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 371.

In a recent press release by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Federal prosecutors announced that they are only pursuing a one count indictment for conspiracy to commit mail fraud/wire fraud.

This is a VERY good thing, although I am sure it is subject to change.

First of all, it says a lot about the prosecution's intentions in this case. Unlike a possession of child pornography case, which is a law enforcement priority and a much more offensive crime, prosecutors did not begin this case with a multi-count indictment.

That means they are not looking for a very lengthy prison sentence.

Given my past experience as a criminal defense lawyer, I would suspect that the worst offenders in this telemarketing scheme would get 2-3 years in prison where as the lesser offenders would either get probation or up to 1.5 years in prison.

Of course, this is just a guess based on my professional experience, not on anything specific about this case. Before any real conclusions can be drawn, a full case analysis that considers the particular facts of this case is needed.

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