Coach who Taped His Female Wrestlers Weighing In on a Scale Is Guilty of Attempted Sexual Exploitation

The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit decided the case of United States of America, Appellant, v. Scott Johnson, Appellee, an appeal from the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri. A jury had found Scott Johnson guilty of eight counts of attempted sexual exploitation of children, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251, after he secretly videotaped minor girls weighing themselves in the nude. Johnson was their wrestling coach. However, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri granted Johnson’s motion for judgment of acquittal notwithstanding the verdict. The Government appealed.

The district court found that the images were not lascivious and only depicted mere nudity, such that there was insufficient evidence to support the convictions for sexual exploitation. The appellate court determined that the district court erred, because a reasonable jury could have determined that the secretly recorded videos were intended by Johnson to capture a lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area of the young women and were intended to elicit a sexual response in the viewer. The fact that the young women in the videos were not acting in an obviously sexual manner did not necessarily indicate that the videos themselves were not or were not intended to be lascivious. The appellate court reversed the judgment of the district court and remanded for reinstatement of the jury’s verdicts and for any necessary further proceedings.

If you have been charged with a crime involving the internet or child pornography, please contact the Law Offices of Marc Neff for a confidential consultation: 215-563-9800 or via email at marc@nefflawoffices.com.