
Quoting
Moshi
My question involves criminal law for the state of: Florida (or federal)
A little over a week ago, a very close friend of mine shot himself to death. That morning, FBI agents had come to his house with a warrant to seize his home computer and his work laptop, which was still at his office. He told the agents that he needed to take his daughter to school and he would meet them at his place of employment. He did take his daughter to school, but he then drove to a gun range, fired a few rounds at paper targets, and turned the gun on himself. I learned from his employer the next day that the FBI agents indicated that they were looking for pornographic images involving minors.
Obviously I am trying to reconcile this with the man I knew. I'm not in denial. My gut knows that in all likelihood he probably intentionally downloaded CP onto his computer. My heart wants to believe this was a one-or-two time stupid mistake he made. At 70 years of age, he was not technologically sophisticated. He couldn't even change the ring tone on his cell phone. I feel certain he had no clue what person to person file sharing is all about. I know that even one image would be unacceptable, but it just seems more bearable for me to believe that this was the result of a freak moment of stupidity and horniness.
My friends all tell me to face the facts that the FBI would not have wasted their time investigating someone who downloaded a few images a few times. They only go after the habitual, long term offenders with thousands of images.
Is that true? If the FBI is investigating someone in that manner, is there little hope that they were anything other than a major player? I'll never know the official answer now that he's dead, but my heart can't let it go.