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No. 125483
| The People of the State of Michigan, |
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Beth Naftaly Kirshner |
Plaintiff-Appellant, |
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vs (Appeal from Ct of Appeals) |
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(Macomb - Chrzanowski, M.) |
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| Russell Douglas Tombs, |
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Peter Jon Van Hoek |
Defendant-Appellee. |
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Plaintiff-Appellant's Brief on Appeal>>
Defendant-Appellee's Brief on Appeal>>
Background
Russell Tombs was a field technician for Comcast and received a laptop computer for work-related use. Before Comcast issued the computer to Tombs, Comcast removed all non-work-related content from it. Tombs terminated his employment with Comcast in August of 2000 and returned the computer to the company. A Comcast employee reviewed the computer's contents to determine whether it needed to be reformatted before being issued to another technician, and discovered files that contained pictures of a partially naked young girl. Additional files depicting young children in sexual situations were found on the computer, and a search of Tombs' home disclosed over 6,500 pictures that, in the opinion of the Oakland County Sheriff's Department, constituted child sexually abusive material or child pornography. Tombs told a protective services worker that he expected that his computer would be reformatted by Comcast for distribution to another employee. He said that he did not expect that anyone would go through his personal files and find the images. A jury convicted Tombs of distributing or promoting child sexually abusive materials, possession of child sexually abusive material, and using the Internet or a computer to commit these crimes. Tombs appealed, and the Court of Appeals vacated his conviction for distributing or promoting child sexually abusive materials. It held that the prosecutor failed to present evidence that Tombs intended for anyone to see or receive child sexually abusive material when returning the computer to Comcast. As a result, the court concluded that there was insufficient evidence that Tombs distributed child sexually abusive material. The prosecutor appeals.
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