Lawyer Among Four Calif. Porn Suspects Who Committed Suicide
Government filings in the Northern District of California indicate that four child pornography suspects, including a lawyer, committed suicide during a nine-month period, the Recorder reports.
U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello told the Recorder that prosecutors have been sharing information about the suicides with judges, and it’s up to the courts to find a solution to the problem. “It’s not our objective to destroy human lives,” he said, “but it is our obligation to protect the most vulnerable in our society from exploitation.”
One of the suspects who committed suicide was Jeffrey Benjamin Harrison, who worked on cases involving asbestos and railroad hearing loss before becoming involved in a tech startup. He was charged after he returned from a business trip to the Philippines and customs officials discovered images of young girls on his laptop, the story says.
He shot himself in Golden Gate Park on March 20.
Chief Magistrate Judge James Larson had released Harrison on a $200,000 bond. He told the Recorder that magistrate judges have initiated discussions to develop a pretrial screening process for suicide risk.
