Nevada Legislature: Senate Panel passes child porn bill

CARSON CITY " A Nevada Senate panel voted unanimously Wednesday for an Assembly-approved proposal allowing civil lawsuits when victims of childhood sex crimes learn there's pornography depicting the crimes against them.

Senate Judiciary Committee members voted for AB88, which allows for the civil lawsuits and fines up to $150,000 based on crimes for which perpetrators may never have been convicted. The measure was sought by Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto.

As amended, the bill enables such victims to sue in civil court for money damages independent of any criminal prosecution against perpetrators, Brett Kandt of the attorney general's office said.

"They don't have to be prosecuted criminally for the victim to be able to sue civilly," Kandt said after the hearing. "They are independent of each other."

Another change to the bill sought by Masto's office makes accessing child pornography on the Internet a crime as long as viewing child pornography was the intent of the perpetrator.

Allen Lichtenstein of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada told the Judiciary Committee that language about accessing materials and child pornography on the Internet "has to be pretty explicit in terms of the intent."

"Any of us who use computers know we access things all the time, thinking it might be one thing and it turns out to be something else," Lichtenstein said. "The idea that accessing something itself, even if you see it and get rid of it, becomes actionable is problematic."

Kandt said he agreed with Lichtenstein regarding criminalizing only those who specifically intend to access and view child pornography on the Internet.

"Our intent and the ACLU's intent were the same, I believe. We only want to make it criminal conduct if people are seeking out and viewing child pornography online intentionally," Kandt said. "We don't want to make it criminal conduct if somebody by accident clicks on a Web site and discovers that there is child pornography."

The committee also unanimously approved AB325, which would require that as a condition of lifetime supervision a sex offender can't have any contact with a victim of the offense or a witness who testified against the defendant.

An amendment to the bill gives such victims of sex offenses protections during court proceedings, such as the ability to use a false name, have a court-appointed advocate and not have their address published in court documents. The protections are similar to those offered to victims of domestic violence and other sex crimes.

The bill, sponsored chiefly by Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson, originally said an offender couldn't live within 1,000 feet of a victim, but that provision was deleted.