Lawyer Known for Priest Lawsuits Takes Aim at Child Porn
A Minnesota lawyer known for filing sexual abuse lawsuits against Catholic priests is now targeting child pornography.
St. Paul lawyer Jeffrey Anderson has filed an unusual lawsuit that seeks the identity of 100 unnamed defendants who downloaded pornographic images of his young client, according to stories in the Associated Press and Reuters. The suit claims the images were created by a man indicted last week on child porn charges.
Anderson is basing his federal suit on a law that imposes a civil penalty of $150,000 on anyone who downloads child pornography. He plans to seek court orders for IP addresses, e-mails and other electronic evidence to help locate the downloaders.
The federal law is known as “Masha’s law” after a 5-year-old Russian girl who was sexually abused by the man who adopted her, according to the AP story. James Marsh, a lawyer who represented the girl, told the wire service that few suits are filed under the law because victims rarely come forward. One issue in the Minnesota case, he said, is whether all of the downloading defendants can be joined in the suit.
“There are a lot of barriers to a successful litigation, but we definitely wish him good luck,” Marsh told AP.
