Cyber Pervert Law Loophole: Pedophiles May Escape Justice

Senator Serphin R. Maltese is working to stop accused and convicted pedophiles from avoiding punishment by closing a loophole in State law dealing with Internet communications with children.
Law enforcement authorities throughout the State have been using a 1996 law in sting operations to catch and prosecute pedophiles who are looking for victims online. A case currently before the State Appellate Division, Second Department will decide whether the Penal Law as currently written was meant to criminalize words as well as pictures, since it prohibits “depictions” of lewd material.
In the case, ex-lawyer Jeffrey Kozlow contends that this means it is only illegal to send sexually explicit pictures to minors, but it is essentially okay to seduce them with words. Authorities seized Kozlow two years ago, when he emailed graphic, sexual propositions to a Westchester police officer posing as a 14-year-old boy.
“Frankly this case is appalling,” said Maltese, a former Queens prosecutor and Deputy Chief of the Homicide Bureau. “If the court agrees with this sicko, it will open the floodgates and allow other Internet sting perverts to get off scot-free.”
The State’s penal law already makes a distinction between clearly obscene material and other material that may have literary, artistic, or other value. Maltese’s legislation would further clarify and strengthen the existing statute by adding the word “describes” to the section of law pertaining to illegal communications with a minor.
“We need to keep our children and grandchildren safe from these pedophiles and not allow the courts to interpret the law so that known predators are free to prey upon and victimize them,” Maltese said.