The prosecutor who wants to charge teenagers with taking racy pictures with their cell phones is now being sued.
It began last year when the D.A. threatened to charge 20 Tunkhannock Area teenagers with child porn because they took racy cell phone pictures of themselves and the pictures were sent to others. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the D.A. on behalf of the teens, hoping to stop the charges.
Officials said 20 students in all were caught with pictures of the young girls nude and semi-nude on their phones. Three students turned down the D.A.'s offer to enter a program which teaches kids the dangers of taking these kinds of pictures. Now he wants to prosecute the students.
Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick tells Newswatch 16, he didn't want any of the kids involved to face charges, but he wanted them to understand sending nude photos of underage girls is a crime. He wanted them to attend a new educational program that teaches teens the dangers of sending nude or partially nude photos of themselves.
"Here are the options: come talk with us and go through the education course, complete it and no charges will ever be filed, there's no record of it, nothing. Or we leave open the possibility of us pressing charges," said D.A. Skumanick.
Parents of three of the teens contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has now filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the D.A. asking the court to block him from following through on filing charges against the three students.
"Sending a photo of yourself in a compromising position is never a good idea," said Vic Walczak of the ACLU, "but it's not a crime. What the D.A. is doing in this case, is using nuclear weapon tactics with child porn charges, these are serious charges, in order to teach these kids a lesson. It's just way overkill."
The district attorney, ACLU and students involved are scheduled to be in court Thursday.
It began last year when the D.A. threatened to charge 20 Tunkhannock Area teenagers with child porn because they took racy cell phone pictures of themselves and the pictures were sent to others. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is suing the D.A. on behalf of the teens, hoping to stop the charges.
Officials said 20 students in all were caught with pictures of the young girls nude and semi-nude on their phones. Three students turned down the D.A.'s offer to enter a program which teaches kids the dangers of taking these kinds of pictures. Now he wants to prosecute the students.
Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick tells Newswatch 16, he didn't want any of the kids involved to face charges, but he wanted them to understand sending nude photos of underage girls is a crime. He wanted them to attend a new educational program that teaches teens the dangers of sending nude or partially nude photos of themselves.
"Here are the options: come talk with us and go through the education course, complete it and no charges will ever be filed, there's no record of it, nothing. Or we leave open the possibility of us pressing charges," said D.A. Skumanick.
Parents of three of the teens contacted the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU has now filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the D.A. asking the court to block him from following through on filing charges against the three students.
"Sending a photo of yourself in a compromising position is never a good idea," said Vic Walczak of the ACLU, "but it's not a crime. What the D.A. is doing in this case, is using nuclear weapon tactics with child porn charges, these are serious charges, in order to teach these kids a lesson. It's just way overkill."
The district attorney, ACLU and students involved are scheduled to be in court Thursday.
