EXCELLENT
COURT DECISION

September 5, 2007 - The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a New Jersey federal judge improperly ignored the federal sentencing guidelines that called for a prison term in the range of 37 to 46 months in sentencing Stefan Goff.

Stefan Goff, an elementary school teacher at the Chapin School, was sentenced to four months for possession of child pornography. Sentencing guidelines called for 37-46 months, with 37 months a minimum.

The Appeals court criticized Goff and the sentencing judge.

Goff has attempted to downplay the nature and seriousness of his crime," [U.S. Circuit Judge Kent A. Jordan] Jordan wrote, "arguing in his brief that he was simply a 'curious, casual user' of the child pornography Web site and implying that his was a victimless crime because viewing the pornography was 'a solitary, private activity of short duration.'"

[Sentencing judge U.S. District Judge Anne E. ] Thompson "appears to have accepted this line of reasoning," Jordan said, noting that the lower court judge had interrupted the prosecutor's argument that possession of child pornography is "a serious matter," by saying: "But it's truly a psychological crime. It is not a taking crime. ... Almost one might say a psychiatric crime." The evidence, Jordan said, exposed the flaw in that logic.

One of the images found on Goff's computer was of "an adult male performing oral sex on a prepubescent female," Jordan noted.

Goff paid for access to hundreds of such images, Jordan noted, and therefore played a key role in the child pornography chain of exploitation.

The decision was unanimous. They ordered that the sentence must be vacated and the case remanded for resentencing

United States v Goff PDF No. 05-5524 (3d Cir. Aug. 30, 2007)