Youtube artist arrested for child porn for "funny video" (involving no nudity)

The incident began on Feb. 12 when Emory filmed himself performing several songs for a class of first-graders at Beechnau Elementary School.

I saw this article today about a Youtube user and musician Evan Emory. Apparently Evan is a resident of a small town where everyone knows everyone, and wanted to get famous from his music using Youtube as his platform. He wrote a song his friends thought was funny when he was 16, and recorded it at an inappropriate place - a school.

A deal is in the works between Emory and prosecutors that would downgrade his child sex crime case to a felony count of posting harmful information on the Internet if he pleads guilty, Muskegon County Sheriff Dean Roesler told AOL News. Originally Emory faced a maximum 20-year prison sentence with a lifetime registration as a sex offender. The deal would involve jail time, five years' probation and community service, but no registration as a sex offender.

He ended up being arrested for child porn, even though the video he put on Youtube didn't contain nudity at all - it had sexual lyrics and was filmed at a school. So now they want to 'downgrade' the crime to posting harmful information on the internet? What kind of charge is that?

Emory brought a videographer with him and gave instructions to get shots of the children looking surprised and then angry. When the children left, Emory asked the teacher if he could stay behind for additional filming, and that's when the second song was recorded, Ravenna School District Superintendent John VanLoon told AOL News.

The incident began on Feb. 12 when Emory filmed himself performing several songs for a class of first-graders at Beechnau Elementary School. He later spliced in something else entirely -– another song with sexually explicit gestures and lyrics such as "I'll be the bus riding your *** up and down my town" and "See how long it takes to make your panties mine." The faces of the children were clearly visible in the video.

I think these charges should all be dropped. Even though the video and song are crass, this is not a case of any law being broken. It's a waste of money and time to seek anything from Evan Emory except an apology - which he has already given.

"I s**t on my community," Emory told the Chronicle. "I have people who have known me since I was 4 in my community that want me dead. I sang at my graduation commencement. You can literally fit the entire town in the gymnasium. I never wanted this to happen. I'm sorry to everybody."

I remember reading about this a few weeks ago when it was still being considered a serious felony. I think what he did was remarkably stupid and depending on the decency laws in the region he could be prosecuted on some kind of misdemeanor (maybe) but to call it "child pornography" or "posting harmful information on the internet" I think completely misses the point.

reply to post by againuntodust


OH?!? So when I hear a song saying "F THIS, F THAT, I"M TEAR YOUR EYEBALLS OUT AND EAT THEM THAN SHOVE SCISSORS DOWN YOUR THROAT!!" I should file a case of assault or murder against them? Thisis beyond ridiculous imo. The world truly is going insane.

reply to post by againuntodust


Yet the TSA can manhandle my sons johnson at the airport. But that is ok the FEDS can rape our kids but no you can't sing a song.

Didn't I read here within the last few days that they busted another child molestation ring in DC?
I'll have to search to make sure, but I think so.

ANd yet here none of the kids heard any of the crass song.

lol@ see how long it takes to make your pantys mine* infamous and artisitic! i mean providing it was for at least 18 years old lol. hey he''s a guy, and sees women and naturally has hormones too ya know. as long as thier of legal age, thier gunna wanna experiment at one point ya know? does the school teeachers and principale know they were once yuong dumb and full of ** too? geesh!
hell when i was in high school early 90's well no one made sexually explicit songs.. but rap culture guys would go around school grouping htemselves like it was a style, wearing pants down to under thier buttcheeks, some girls dresed slutty (metal chicks) breasts all half hanging out, leaving sexual remarks of orgasms on desks..carved with knife or pen, and teachers never said or did nothing to enforce a cleanup.
a kid sings about it..this is a problem. how weak our society has become.

I understand the song and video are meant to be funny, but what isn't funny is that he was so sexually explicit and showed the faces of innocent children in connection with that. Our children are already sexualized so early, and I don't believe he had anyone's permission to use their child in his video. I'd be extremely pi**ed to know my child had been used in such a way in a place that is supposed to be safe and free from that kind of thing--And then to have them posted on the internet for the whole world to see just makes all the more infuriating.

If he wants to be famous that's fine...Just don't sexually exploit MY child in YOUR video...Shell out for actors and get release forms signed. Do it in an honest way that doesn't put a bunch of children in that position.

This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time and I come to ATS daily. I am shocked that this guy got a felony, he did not touch them, show them his penis or otherwise harm them. He sang a song with some explicit lyrics. The people outraged over this are more immature than him! Do you all realize he was charged with a FELONY and sitting in jail while facing PRISON? What the HELL is wrong with this country! Make him stand in front of the kids, apologize, and be done with it! Sheesh! I hope some people get together and exercise "civil disobedience" at the jail until he is released.

I'm sure the video is very distasteful, though it wouldnt be the first time children were used for similar entertainment, and honestly, its a free world... not something I'd want to watch, but if it isn't what they are trying to say it is, well... release him.

Originally posted by WhizPhiz
reply to post by againuntodust

 

OH?!? So when I hear a song saying "F THIS, F THAT, I"M TEAR YOUR EYEBALLS OUT AND EAT THEM THAN SHOVE SCISSORS DOWN YOUR THROAT!!" I should file a case of assault or murder against them? Thisis beyond ridiculous imo. The world truly is going insane.

No, but it could be considered 'posting harmful information on the internet' or some garbage charge like that.

I don't know why they just don't do a public "spanking" and be on with it. Humiliation works wonders and it is a form of punishment that used to work in this messed up world of ours.

This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Just spank him and be done with it, he will have learned his lesson. Anyone possessing this video and caught should also be spanked.

Oh yes, and then spank the darn fools who came up with the idea that this was kiddie porn!

I never saw the vid. he showed innocent children? thats mesed up then. i wouldnt say he should be sentenced for being a pedeophile, unless he has in fact touched kids : [ but the vid in that case, shoud be banned if kids were used, in person or photos, for sexually explicit lyrics*
canibal corpse was banned in god knows how many countrys. and look at what they used to sing about! hell they still have an album available, thier 2nd album 1991..buthcered at birth* its graphic as all hell. the album cover, shows a mother completely being taken apart by 2 decaying corpses with knives, meathooks int he background, the baby and umbelical chord being removed, and a babys skeleton with a huge fracture hole in its skull. thats okay to buy stilll to this day. this guy sings about sex, kids are invovled and its attacked.
im not defending the guy, im jsut making a point. it seems when someting more real yet taboo is done, its not tlaked about or dealt with. when something mor lad back happens, its dealt with. makes me think in the 80;s the band twisted sister..they were in court, for having offensive music and language. they won, freedom of speech. yuo dont like it..turn it off, dont listen too it. that brought forth, the labels on music parental advisory explicit lyrics.
and just beucase, a band with graphic coves, in this case, canibal corpse, it has happened, sad to say in history. the back of the album, has remaorks made by john fisher, and some preist called the barron..whod take littel boys sit on em till theys topped breathing, sexual stuff, killed n ate them, things like that. makes dahmer look almost innocent. thats allowed... someone who actually didnt touch kids is in trouble. jsut kinda dosnt make sense to me ya know?

Originally posted by Greensage
I don't know why they just don't do a public "spanking" and be on with it.

Then you will have Republican politicians getting caught on purpose, instead of on accident like they do now....Larry Craig, Im looking at you.

I agree with the previous post about filing lawsuits against ALL the dirty rap-hip hop music artists that are allowed to be broadcast over the radio and especially MTV, for THAT is the real child abuse and "tongue in cheek" under age porn, Disney has been doing that for decades. If "they" get away with prosecuting this poor kid then that sets a precedent to bag any of us for anything they deem to be inappropriate.
The courts can make baking cookies into child porn trafficking if they want to.

I know there are tons of internet memes right now poking fun at the whole "pedobear" mentality and making light of an otherwise very serious issue....a shame, really, while I understand the lighthearted approach to a very real and troublesome subject....calling this guy an "artist" is just reprehensible.

There is far too much "art" these days (social commentary, I'm sure some will profess to defend) but it's beginning to overload and just turn into a grotesque abomination with how far reaching and widespread it's become.

Artists (speaking as one myself) are supposed to raise and elevate human consciousness above and beyond the mundane and obscene - not revel and try to capitalize it.

Seeing as how more and more minds are being influenced by the new technology set before them, indeed - absorbing such "memes" into their consciousness without forethought of how their expression might have a larger societal impact in a lust for that "quick fix" of internet "fame"....one can only hope this young man will take his talents beyond the realm of the obscene.

I believe the parents of these children have every right to be offended that their progeny was used to make such a "work" without prior notification. The fact that the "artist" in question failed to divulge his intent to the participants parents speaks very poorly on his character.

Free speech is one thing, but free speech exploiting innocents is quite another entirely.

Smearing fecal matter on the walls of the museum of the mind does not "art" make.

Originally posted by GENERAL EYES

I believe the parents of these children have every right to be offended that their progeny was used to make such a "work" without prior notification. The fact that the "artist" in question failed to divulge his intent to the participants parents speaks very poorly on his character.

Free speech is one thing, but free speech exploiting innocents is quite another entirely.

Smearing fecal matter on the walls of the museum of the mind does not "art" make.

edit on 3/13/11 by GENERAL EYES because: Big Brother demands spellcheck

What exploiting? It was an edited video, he recorded it when they weren't in the same room then edited them into the video later.... the kids did not actually hear the same lyrics when in person of this 'artist'. It's a BS charge trumped up by parents b*tching to the local police and town council. Basically what this is saying is that... whatever you choose to do, if it offends others, it's illegal, period.

I'm offended by the current rap lyrics being over played every day to 10 and 11yr olds that any parent can't stop them from listening to 24/7. 9am in the morning one can hear all about sex and getting naked and doing it all night long on any radio station and MTV.... and this kid is being brought up on these charges is just another shot in the face to those people not in "the big club." Get use to this.

And yet Wesboro Church is protected by the First Amendment?

I find children yelling that "God Hates Fags" in public much worse. Time to round up WBC for child pornography?

TSA and whats going on here are 2 completely different things...

I am at a loss as to how they are charging this guy. I know the CSC (Criminal Sexual Conduct) statutes in Michigan are pretty specific, and I dont see how his actions came anywhere near a violation. As distasteful as the song is, I dont see how he broke any laws, aside from acting stupidly.

The PA needs to reconsider this course of action, right after the PA fixes the apparent rectal-cranial inversion issue they have. If it goes forward the PA should be looked at for prosecutorial misconduct.

To me the cops moved to fast and did not do an adequate job on investigating the background of the video, IE were any kids present when the second song was filmed.

Then again its Michigan, where some years ago a guy in a canoe capsized and yelled the F word. There was a mother and her child nearby, she filed a complaint with the Police, and he was arrested and charged for screaming an obscenity in front of a mother/child (one of those old school laws that never should of been allowed in the first place, but was still on the books). Eventually the guy was cleared and the law has since been non enforceable.

If I were this guy I would not be taking a plea deadl (assuming the article is relating ALL facts). I would be going after the Police and the PA though for their actions.

This is BS...

reply to post by Visitor2012

No, but it could be considered 'posting harmful information on the internet' or some garbage charge like that.

Oh really, which world do you come from friend? Have you not heard the hundreds, possibly thousands of so called "punk/hardcore/heavy/death/metal/goth" whatever the hell you call it, by so called professional musicians? The lyrics can be far more sinister and disturbing than the line I posted. These songs and videos can be found on YouTube and many other places, not to mention purchasable at your local music store. And you're telling me someone is going to charge these people with "unfavorable content" or some crap?

Well, at least he's gotten some free publicity.

As for the whole ordeal, it's idiotic. As far as I've read, there was no schoolchildren even around him when he was singing. Just clever editing making appear that he was singing this to a class. Now yes, kids might see this online, but parents already let their kids listen to hard core "gangsta rap" with equally if not worse words. So in my opinion, they have little to say about it.

My opinion of course, and opinions are like what again? That's right, and everyone has one.

Thiers a pedeophile around the corner form me..we went to school together, really wierd dude..talks to pencils, walksa round with em, talks to his fingers. he was arrested 4 times years ago, for trying ot engage with younger boys under 14. sick . the thing is, the law* he is seeing a special psychiatrist, and wont get locked up for it..thise 4 times. i dont have my seatbelt on, i go to court* i guess in a sense, thats what im trying too say. the sytem needs to re organize its prioritys.