From DC local news affiliate NBC4, article located here. Emphasis in bold and [ed notes] are mine.

Friend Of Missing Teen Arraigned On Child Porn Charges
Fawley Faces 16 Counts

POSTED: 10:38 am EDT September 26, 2005
UPDATED: 12:48 pm EDT September 26, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. — A Richmond man referred to by police as a \”person of interest\” in the disappearance of a Virginia Commonwealth University student was arraigned Monday morning on child pornography charges.

Ben Fawley, 38, was arraigned on 16 counts of child pornography. Assistant Commonwealth\’s Attorney Mike Jagels said investigators found evidence in Fawley\’s computers of at least 30 movies depicting sexual acts with children between the ages of 10 and 14 and as young as 1 to 2 years old.

Taylor Behl was last seen the evening of Sept. 5 when she left her dormitory room, taking only her cell phone, a small amount of cash, a student ID and her car keys. She told her roommate she would be back in a few hours.

The teen\’s car was found two weeks later, less than two miles from her dorm. Her license plates had been replaced with Ohio plates reported stolen several weeks before she disappeared.

According to an attorney who has represented Fawley, the photographer had a romantic relationship with the teen, and Jagels said the two had sex on several occasions. That could lead to a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Jagels said. Fawley may also face additional charges for distribution of child pornography, he said.

\”I feel so bad for the children in all of those movies that he allegedly has,\” said Behl\’s mother, Janet Pelasara. \”I\’m glad he\’s off the street — to keep him from hurting any other children, including my child.\”

Pelasara said she \”couldn\’t begin to guess\” whether Fawley is involved in her daughter\’s disappearance, and said she is still holding out hope that Behl will be found alive.

\”Maybe if he did have something to do with it, maybe he\’ll tell the authorities, so that we can get her back safe and sound,\” she said.

Fawley spoke little during his brief court appearance, snorting and shaking his head back and forth when Jagels told the judge he posed a flight risk.

Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court Judge Kimberly O\’Donnell appointed public defender Richard Johnson to represent Fawley after he said he couldn\’t afford to hire an attorney. Johnson objected when Jagels brought up the teenager\’s disappearance, calling the Behl case irrelevant to the current charges. O\’Donnell disagreed, and ordered Fawley held without bond until his preliminary hearing on Oct. 31.

Richmond attorney Chris Collins has been representing Fawley but was not in court, and didn\’t immediately return calls seeking comment. Johnson said he was unsure if Collins had dropped the case, and declined to comment further.

Fawley has been convicted of three assaults in the Richmond area over the past three years, Jagels said. Two of those were domestic assaults involving women, he said.

According to a police incident report, Fawley said he was abducted several hours after Behl disappeared. Fawley told police he was robbed and kidnapped by two unknown assailants as he was out walking around 5 a.m. on Sept. 6. Fawley said he was beaten and shoved to the ground, where someone put a bag over his head before putting him into a vehicle and driving him to an unknown location. He said he was then pushed out onto a dirt road.

In the incident report, the responding officer said Fawley wasn\’t able to provide any details as to where he had been taken, but told police he\’d been attacked last year outside his home and believed the two events were related.

If convicted on all counts, Fawley faces up to 80 years in prison. [ed note: \”on all accounts\” being \”contributing to delinquency of a minor\” and of having \’child pornography\’ on a computer that was within his possession, but allegedly belonged to his former roommate, a man who kicked Fawley out of his apartment in June 2005.]

Authorities said the charges are not directly related to the disappearance of 17-year-old VCU freshman Taylor Behl.

Police say they found the evidence while searching Fawley\’s apartment near VCU for items that might belong to Behl, including her clothing. Police searched the apartment and seized a number of computers, hard drives and CDs.

Fawley\’s attorney has said that Fawley was one of the last people to see Behl before she disappeared three weeks ago.

\”It\’s my information that those were found on computers from an ex-roommate,\” Collins said. \”And I don\’t know any of the details of the case or what the government\’s planning on doing with it. I do know it\’s got nothing to do with Taylor Behl.\”

Fawley has not been charged in Behl\’s disappearance.

[ed note: So I guess if you download some fucked-up shit from sensibleerection.com, somethingawful.com, cruel.com, or end up with a misnamed movie file via whatever means and it turns out to be naughty, you can get 80 years in prison. Because if this article is to be believed for accuracy (and who knows if it is?), Fawley\’s \’child pornography\’ did not consist of photos or videos that involved Taylor Behl.

This article says the \”movies depict [sic] sexual acts with children between the ages of 10 and 14 and as young as 1 to 2 years old.\” The quote is worded poorly; I think it is meant to mean \’sexual acts with children between the ages of one and fourteen,\’ though there is no specification what sort of acts (actual sodomy carrying a much heavier charge than mutual masturbation, etc.), nor if Fawley himself is in the movies. There is no indication that Fawley had anything to do with the production or assaults in these movies, only in the possession thereof.

I don\’t like this guy, I admit it. But he\’s currently being scapegoated for something that the police say they have absolutely no evidence or information to tie him to. That\’s not right. Innocent until proved otherwise in a court of law, not in a trial by media and generalized talk. This is ridiculous.

If those movies have nothing to do with Taylor, which the police say they do not, and Fawley was not directly involved with their creation (the charges would be much greater if he were alleged to have been involved with the creation), then for various media sources to continually quote Behl\’s mother saying things such as \”I\’m glad he\’s off the street — to keep him from hurting any other children, including my child,\” is nonsensical. It\’s sensationalizing the situation and skewing public interest.

Then there\’s that whole issue about Fawley and Behl having had sexual relations, he being 38 and she being 17. Despite any adjectives people may want to use about that situation, the issue of legality really needs to be addressed. As things currently stand, Fawley is accused of \”contributing to delinquency of a minor.\” I argue that this should not be. Taylor Behl was living as an adult, without parental supervision, on a college campus. She no longer answered to a legal guardian, so why should she be considered under the age of majority in the eyes of the law?

Yeah, when I was 17, I fucked people who were many years over the age of 21 (the age where you start contributing to the delinquency of minors), some of whom were even in their — gasp — mid-30s. So what? Those were our choices. I was not exploited. I was not coerced. I was already living as an adult. But by having sex, my lovers and I were committing \”antisocial misdeed[s] in violation of the law;\” and yet, somehow, by simply living a few months longer we ceased to break those laws.

Taylor Behl is being chastised for having sex. She\’s no longer the good girl. She went bad. Mommy had no idea she had a \”secret life.\” Oh, the horrors! Ben Fawley is getting hung out to dry for ruining mama\’s little baby, and being a bad boy to boot. Maybe he was involved in Behl\’s disappearance, maybe not. Fact of the matter is, what\’s really on trial here is sex, and no matter what happens to Taylor Behl and Ben Fawley, sex in America is going to lose.]