Prosecution Gone WILD!

see http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/090326_NJ_Teen_Arrested_After_Posting_Nude_Pics for more...

In yet another case of impulsive prosecution, the Passaic County Sherriff has arrested and charged a 14 year old girl with distribution of child pornography. The victim in this case is the same 14 year old girl. Of course they don't publish her name....she is too young. But that leads me to my point, she is too young to have her name and face plastered all over the news, but not too young to go to jail for 17 years and be registered as a sex offender? Let's be clear, what she did was wrong, and I'm relatively sure a bunch of kids ran home to delete some of their pictuires after hearing the story, but thats it. Doesn't intent play into any of this? She is not some 50 year old man in a wife beater trolling the internet, or trying to meet youngsters at the mall. This is a kid doing the stupid, sometimes illegal, things that kids often do. Yes, make a big deal of it...yes scare the pants off..(bad analogoy)...., but to mark this child with a scarlet letter for the rest of her life is unnecessary, and over the top. I was happy to hear later in the day that the charges would not be filed.