A lawyer representing a 17-year-old in Prince William County, Virginia, who faces felony pornography charges for allegedly sexting his 15-year-old girlfriend says that police want to inject the teen with an arousal-causing substance so they can photograph his naked, erect genitals. From the Washington Post’s piece about the allegations made by attorney Jessica Harbeson Foster:
The case was set for trial on July 1, where Foster said Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Claiborne Richardson told her that her client must either plead guilty or police would obtain another search warrant “for pictures of his erect penis,” for comparison to the evidence from the teen’s cell phone. Foster asked how that would be accomplished and was told that “we just take him down to the hospital, give him a shot and then take the pictures that we need.”
Police have not commented on the case, which apparently began with a complaint from the 15-year-old’s mother. Prince William County’s chief prosecutor, Paul B. Ebert, told the Post that the teen’s lawyer’s allegations “lack credibility,” but said he would look into the situation further.
ThinkProgress spoke to a University of Pennsylvania professor who “doubts that there is legal standing” for authorities to compel the teen to pull down his pants and be injected with an arousal-causing substance so police can take pictures of his erect genitals.
The case of Lorena Bobbitt, who infamously cut off her husband’s penis in 1993, also took place in Prince William County.* Bobbitt was found not guilty of criminal charges in the incident after a trial. The prosecutor in that trial? Paul B. Ebert.
*Correction, July 9, 2014: This post originally stated that Lorena Bobbitt cut off her husband’s penis in 1994. The incident occurred in 1993.
