Update: Virginia Cops Abandon Plan to Coercively Photograph Nude Teen’s Erection

Virginia cops have agreed
not to take any more pictures of a 17-year-old boy’s penis.
They decided not to follow through on their initial plan, which was
to detain the teen, take him to the hospital, inject him with drugs
that would give him an erection, photograph his privates, and use
special software to compare this penis picture with other penis
pictures obtained by authorities.

The bizarre and disgusting approach—for which the Manassas City
Police Department obtained a warrant—is part of a child pornography
investigation. The presumed pornographers are not the cops snapping
pictures of a teen’s genitals, but rather the teen himself, who
allegedly exchanged nude texts with his 15-year-old girlfriend.
Both were underage, though the girlfriend has not been charged.

Thankfully, media fury has caused the cops to reevaluate their
strategy for prosecuting this case, according to the
Associated Press:

Police in Virginia said Thursday that they no longer will pursue
efforts to take sexually explicit photos of a 17-year-old in an
effort to prove a sexting case against him.

Police and prosecutors faced a wave of criticism following media
reports that they had obtained a warrant to take photos of the
teen’s erect penis. Police wanted the pictures to compare against
photos he is accused of sending to his 15-year-old girlfriend at
the time.

On Thursday, Manassas Police Lt. Brian Larkin said the Police
Department will not proceed with the plan to take the pictures and
will let a search warrant authorizing the photos to expire.

Privacy advocates had criticized the plan as a violation of the
teen’s constitutional rights.

The teen’s aunt, who serves as his legal guardian, said she had
not heard of the police department’s reversal until contacted by an
Associated Press reporter Thursday afternoon. She said she would be
ecstatic if police follow through on their statement that they will
no longer pursue the photos. But she said she won’t be fully
satisfied until the case against her nephew is dropped
entirely.

The teen is charged in juvenile court with felony counts of
possession and manufacture of child pornography. The aunt maintains
that the charges are overblown and said the plan to pursue photos
of her nephew in an aroused state came about only after she and her
nephew refused to accept a plea bargain that had been offered.

With any hope, perhaps coverage of this madness will embarrass
the authorities into dropping the case entirely.