A prominent local artist who lost his post after a child pornography arrest has been sentenced to two years probation after pleading to a lesser charge.
Lawrence Brose was director of the CEPA Gallery when federal investigators began to look at his computer history. German child porn probers had given U.S. investigators his computer email address as the recipient of child porn.
The probe and criminal process went from 2006 to yesterday when he was sentenced for transporting child porn, a much lesser charge than the original of possessing child porn. Defense lawyer Paul Cambria says computer forensics experts say the relatively small number of porn images were embedded in emails.
"You never know how many are going to come through in one of these e-mails," notes Cambria. "We had a case recently where images were deposited on a computer through a so-called Trojan Horse. In other words, you would think that you were downloading one thing and then it turns out to be something else. So, it's a very dangerous area."
Dozens of local cultural leaders were in Chief Federal District Judge William Skretny's courtroom for the sentencing. Brose is well-regarded as a filmmaker who has probed the limits of gay male erotica.
Brose has started to rebuild his life with a teaching positions and successful completion of alcohol treatment, while facing alcohol testing and computer monitoring in the future.
