A Day Care Worker Who Says She Was Documenting Diaper Rashes Got 126 Years for Taking 8 Photos
A few years ago, Roseberline Turenne, an 18-year-old aide at a Maryland day care center, used her cellphone to take photographs showing “the naked genitals and pubic areas” of eight little girls. Seven of the girls were lying on changing tables, while the eighth was standing in a bathroom. Turenne later claimed she was documenting preexisting diaper rashes, lest she be blamed for allowing them to develop while the girls were in her care.
Turenne was fired after the pictures were discovered because they violated the day care center’s policies, which prohibited staff members from photographing children. She also was charged with eight counts each of child sexual abuse, production of child pornography, and possession of child pornography.
Discounting Turenne’s explanation of her motive for taking the pictures, a jury convicted her on all 24 counts, resulting in a 126-year prison sentence. Last Friday, the Maryland Supreme Court upheld Turenne’s convictions, concluding that the jury reasonably rejected her account, that her conduct met the elements of the three crimes, and that “the evidence was sufficient for the jury to conclude that Ms. Turenne took the photos of the children for the purpose of sexual gratification.”
Although Turenne’s astonishingly severe sentence was not at issue in this appeal, it vividly illustrates how laws related to child pornography can generate penalties that make little sense. Even if you join the jurors, the intermediate appeals court, and the Maryland Supreme Court in disbelieving her account of why she took the pictures, she did not share them with anyone, and she was not accused of assaulting the girls. Yet under Maryland law, Turenne will have to serve at least a quarter of her 126-year sentence—nearly 32 years—before she is eligible for parole.
People convicted of violent crimes in Maryland have to serve at least half of their sentences before they are eligible for parole. But someone who was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and received the maximum 10-year sentence still would have a shot at parole after five years. Even someone convicted of first-degree rape, which triggers a mandatory 25-year minimum, could end up serving less time than Turenne faces for noncontact offenses that consisted of nothing more than taking pictures.
That reality is especially troubling because it is not clear that Turenne committed the crimes with which she was charged. Just four out of seven justices agreed that all of her convictions were valid. In a partial dissent joined by Justice Brynja Booth, Chief Justice Matthew Fader concluded that there was insufficient evidence to convict Turenne of producing and possessing child pornography. Justice Shirley Watts concurred, and she filed a separate dissent arguing that Turenne’s sexual abuse convictions also should be overturned.
As relevant here, Maryland law defines child pornography as a “visual representation” that “depicts a minor engaged as a subject…in sexual conduct,” which includes the “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of any person.” Although the statute does not define “lascivious exhibition,” the Maryland Supreme Court settled on a “content-plus-context” test for determining “whether the image is objectively sexual in nature.”
The production and possession charges, in other words, did not hinge on Turenne’s personal motivation. In concluding that Turenne’s pictures were “objectively sexual,” the majority noted that “all eight girls were partially or fully nude,” that “all had nude genitals and pubic areas on display,” that “none of the children’s faces are visible in the photographs,” that the picture “were all very similar to one another,” and that several girls were in “poses that resemble w
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