The American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa has announced an agreement where the Marion County Attorney’s Office will not prosecute a 14-year-old Knoxville girl “for allegedly taking, possessing, sending and/or distributing any images of herself to a third-party minor child or allegedly soliciting the exchange of, possession of, and/or receiving images of that third party minor child.”

The ACLU entered the case on behalf of the girl, claiming the photos she took of herself depicted no nudity. The lawsuit stems from a sexting case involving multiple students at Knoxville High School in the spring of 2016. Parents of one of the students involved filed the lawsuit against Bull in September of 2016 after Bull planned to prosecute the student for sexual exploitation of a minor or child pornography if the student did not agree to a pretrial diversion program. Bull tells KNIA/KRLS News his office examined what the potential opportunities were to allow for a learning event in the individuals lives. Bull says the program was modeled after other counties programs and that juvenile court services located a trained professional to speak to the minors about the dangers of sexting. According to Bull, the diversion program was to attend a class, give up a cell phone for the summer and do community service. Bull says, in response to the diversion program, an individual chose to file a federal lawsuit.

Bull says he stands by his decision that it was in the best interests of all the juveniles involved to participate in the pretrial diversion program rather than risk a guilty verdict in court and the potential label of being a sex offender. Bull says in this case law enforcement as well and juvenile court services and Bull’s own investigation led to the conclusion that the facts supported a prosecution.

As part of the settlement, the county must pay $40,000 in attorney fees to the ACLU. The county will be liable for the $2,500 insurance deductible. Bull says the decision to settle was a financial one determined by the Marion County Board of Supervisors in consultation with the insurance company. The ACLU of Iowa filed papers Thursday in federal court dismissing its lawsuit after securing the agreement.

Marion County Attorney Ed Bull Statement:
“I am pleased all claims in this lawsuit have been dismissed. No judge or jury ever found that any of the ACLU’s allegations had merit. The ACLU has and continues to express their allegations as facts. Ultimately, it is the trier of fact (judge or jury) that determines what allegations are facts, based upon the evidence presented. The Knoxville Police Department investigated and developed evidence, vetted by Juvenile Court Services that resulted in the charges that were contemplated to be filed.

It is important to remember that this lawsuit was filed after my office offered a diversion program to juveniles so as to avoid any juvenile having to face delinquency charges that could have resulted in an adjudication of a sex-based crime. It was my hope that the children involved in this investigation could have had a chance to learn from their mistake, without life-altering consequences, including the potential of being labeled a sex offender. The diversion program was modeled after other countries’ approaches to deal with these type of cases and was administered by Juvenile Court Services.

Due to the Iowa Rules of Professional Conduct that govern comments by a prosecutor and out of respect of all of the juvenile involved, I will refrain from discussing the evidence against Nancy Doe. Unfortunately, litigation is expensive, and the insurance company made a business decision that it made more sense to resolve the case in this manner.

It is important to note that the expense to the taxpayers of Marion County was $2,500.00, the amount of our deductible, which was the same amount we would have paid regardless if we were successful at trial. As a result, the Marion County Board of Supervisors in consultation with the County’s insurance company determined it was in the best interest of our County to resolve this matter.

As county attorney, it is my job to pursue justice. Nothing can or will change that. I would like to thank the many residents of Marion County who expressed both their support of me and their dismay that any parents would sue the prosecutor under these circumstances. I will put the ACLU’s dismissal papers in my file and go right back to work serving my community.”

Marion County Board of Supervisors Chairperson Mark Raymie commented: “We fully supported our County Attorney in the prosecution of this case. Our decision to settle this case was a business decision, based on the advice of our insurance company. We continue to appreciate the work that Ed Bull and his staff undertake on a daily basis to hold offenders accountable, and work in concert with law enforcement to ensure that Marion County is a safe place for people to work and live.”

ACLU Statement:

The ACLU of Iowa is pleased to announce an agreement with Marion County Attorney Ed Bull not to prosecute a 14-year-old Knoxville girl, who he threatened with criminal charges after she texted two photos of herself—that depicted no nudity—to a boy.

As part of the legal settlement agreement, the county must also pay $40,000 in attorney fees to the ACLU and its cooperating attorneys, who represented the girl and her parents in the lawsuit. The ACLU of Iowa today filed papers in federal court dismissing its lawsuit after securing the agreement.

Bull had threatened the girl with charges of sexual exploitation of a minor—herself—for taking the two photographs of herself in the mirror. In one of the photographs, she is wearing a sports bra and boy shorts. In the other, she’s in boy shorts with her hair covering her breasts.
In the lawsuit, the girl is identified as Nancy Doe, and her parents are identified as Jane and John Doe. A criminal conviction of the threatened charges came with extremely serious potential consequences, including removal from the home, prison time and placement on the sex offender registry.

To avoid prosecution, he told the girl, she would have to sign an admission of guilt; enroll in a pre-trial diversion program involving community service; attend classes intended to teach teens not to engage in “sexting,” the content of which her parents objected to; and have no access to her phone or laptop for a set period of time. It also carried with it consequences to the teen’s ability to engage in extracurricular activities, such as having to sit out of sports games.

The girls’ parents, like the girl, are keeping their names as confidential as possible in order to protect their daughter, now and in the future as she becomes an adult and moves on with her life.

The girls’ parents prepared the following joint statement: “We’re glad to see this matter put to rest. It’s appalling that a county attorney would presume to discipline our daughter by threatening her with the bizarre and terrifying serious criminal charges of sexually exploiting a minor—even when the minor he accused her of ‘exploiting’ is herself. He threatened our daughter with removal from our home, time in prison, and placement on the sex offender list. All this for texting photos that didn’t show any more skin than many swimsuit ads.
“It’s frightening to see the government step in with this sort of dangerous overreach and presume to play the role of parent. As her parents, we want to raise our daughter in the way we believe best protects her, including her self-esteem, without the county attorney imposing his own sexist moral standards and using dangerous scare tactics on a teenage girl,” the parents said.

“We feel the county attorney misused his position of authority to bully our daughter. As a result, this has adversely affected every aspect of our lives. We tried to work with him, but he wouldn’t budge and insisted that our daughter admit guilt to a crime that she didn’t commit. We hope our situation serves as a cautionary tale for other county attorneys when dealing with teens and their families.”
Rita Bettis, ACLU of Iowa legal director, said, “It’s important to note that we challenged the county attorney’s actions not only on free speech grounds, but also as an equal protection violation. Our client was punished for engaging in behavior—taking photos of her chest, even with no nudity depicted—which, had she been a boy, would not have resulted in any penalty at all.”

In addition, the lawsuit asked the court to affirm the Does’ fundamental right to raise their child without undue interference by the state, in the way that they think is appropriate.

The ACLU became involved in the case, in part, to protect Nancy Doe’s right to free speech and expression. Bettis said, “It is a violation of the First Amendment for a prosecutor to threaten to bring criminal charges for protected speech and expression. As a policy matter, it’s bewildering that a county attorney would threaten to put a child in jail or prison or place her on the sex offender registry for taking a picture of herself.”

Des Moines civil rights attorney Glen Downey of Downey and Mundy Law Offices, ACLU cooperating attorney in the case, pointed out that the county prosecutor went after the girl even though she hadn’t engaged in any criminal behavior. “The Constitution protects both adults and children. And certainly, child pornography laws were never meant to be applied to prosecute the children themselves,” said Downey.

In addition to Downey, Des Moines defense attorneys Robert Rehkemper and Matt Lindolm of Gourley Rehkemper & Lindhold PLC worked with the ACLU to protect the Does from the threatened prosecution in this case.