Iowa child porn case has comic book collectors reeling

Just one week ago a 39-year-old Glenwood man entered a guilty plea in federal court to child pornography charges. The man, Christopher Handley, unlike others who have faced similar charges, did not e-mail or transfer nude photos of himself to a minor, nor did he engage in viewing online child pornography videos or pictures. His crime centered around a shipment of seven graphic novels from Japan, known as manga. And that has prompted a firestorm of activity within the collectors’ community.

The case first drew national attention in the fall of 2008 when the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund signed on as a special consultant to the defense of Handley, an avid collector of all manga including explicit lolicon/loli (named after the literary work “Lolita”), yaoi (male homosexual romance) and yuri (female homosexual romance) genres. One month later the case, and a warning to other comic collectors by graphic artist Neil Gaiman, was printed on MTV’s Splash Page blog.

“I wrote a story about a serial killer who kidnaps and rapes children, and then murders them,” Gaiman told MTV. “We did that as a comic, not for the purposes of titillation or anything like that, but if you bought that comic, you could be arrested for it? That’s just deeply wrong. Nobody was hurt. The only thing that was hurt were ideas.”

Eric Chase, attorney for Handley, agreed that there is explicit sex drawn in yaoi comics, and that Japanese cultural differences can create a visual appearance of adolescence.

“The men are drawn in a very androgynous style, which has the effect of making them look really young,” Chase said. “There’s a real taboo in Japan about showing pubic hair, so they’re all drawn without it, which also makes them look young. So what concerned the authorities were the depictions of children in explicit sexual situations that they believed to be obscene, but there are no actual children. It was all very crude images from a comic book.”

Handley, an office worker, was first investigated in May 2006 when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials intercepted a package addressed to him that originated from Japan. Upon opening the package the officials found seven manga books with sexually explicit drawings. As the investigation continued, law enforcement searched Handley’s private manga collection and found more evidence of what was deemed to be obscene material. He was indicted by a grand jury sitting in the Southern District of Iowa in May 2007.

Although he originally faced five charges under the PROTECT Act of 2003 (also known as the Amber Alert Law), Judge James E. Gritzner ruled in July 2008 that several of the charges were  “constitutionally infirm.” Handley’s plea agreement includes only two charges: One count of possession of obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children and one count of mailing obscene matter. At his upcoming sentencing, which has not yet been scheduled, Handley faces a maximum of 15 years in prison, $500,000 in fines and six years of supervised release following any prison term. He also forfeits all property seized in his prosecution.

Chase told Wired Magazine that he recommended Handley make a deal because he did not believe an adequate defense could be mounted if the jury saw the drawings.

“Naturally, we are very disappointed by this result, but understand that in a criminal case, every defendant must make the decision that they believe serves their best interest,” said Charles Brownstein, executive director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund. “Because the set of facts specific to this case were so unique, we hope that its importance as precedent will be minimal. However, we must also continue to be prepared for the possibility that other cases could arise in the future as a result.”

The organization reports that it has spent $2,400 in research preparing for a jury trial and had allocated an additional $15,000 for expert witness expenses.

“Mr. Handley now faces the loss of his freedom and his property, all for owning a handful of comic books. It’s chilling,” Brownstein said. “The Fund remains unwavering in our commitment to be prepared to manage future threats of this nature wherever they arise. This is the unfortunate conclusion of Mr. Handley’s case, but it is not the end of this sort of prosecution. For that reason, the Fund stands steadfast in our commitment to defending the First Amendment rights of the comics art form.”