Prosecutors ask Bebris’ child porn case stay
Prosecutors have asked the court again to dismiss a motion filed by a former Oakwood Public Safety director accused in a child pornography case.
The defense team for Alexander Bebris has asked the court to review whether Bebris’ constitutional rights were violated when Facebook alerted the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children that Bebris’ allegedly uploaded files containing child pornography.
Alexander Bebris, 50, oversaw police officers, firefighters and EMTs in Oakwood for 11 years before leaving in November 2017. He is charged in the United States
District Court of Eastern Wisconsin.
Bebris is hoping a judge will force a representative from Facebook to testify in the case. Facebook has fought the defense team through legal documents asking the court to reject Bebris attempts.
Prosecutors filed a motion asking the court to reject Bebris’ attempts and to reject the motion.
“Bebris’ most glaring shortcoming — and the focus of most of his brief — concerns whether Facebook can be considered a ‘government agent.’ It cannot,” prosecutors say in court documents. “And every other court to consider the same argument presented by Bebris — that an electronic service provides like Facebook here, was a ‘government agent’ when it reported child pornography to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children — has rejected this argument.”
Prosecutors say to determine whether a private party acted as a government agent, courts look to see whether the government knew of and participated in the conduct and whether the private party’s purpose in conducting the search was to assist law enforcement agents or to further its own ends.
“Contrary to Bebris’ assertions, the record is more than sufficient for the court to address these questions,” prosecutors said. “Indeed, the evidence establishes that the government did not know... Facebook’s actions and Facebook’s actions were motivated by its own business interests.”
Prosecutors said it is in Facebook’s best business interests for there to be no child pornography on the website. A next court date in the case has not been set.