Hanceville child porn case continued

The Cullman Times

Sat, May 17 2008

— Patrick McCreless
patrickm@cullmantimes.com
A Hanceville man scheduled to stand trial for allegedly possessing child pornography will not see the inside of a Cullman County courtroom this month as planned.
According to documents from the Cullman County Circuit Clerk’s office, Judge Don Hardeman recently continued the trial of Christopher Nathaniel Freeman, 24, to the next criminal jury session on May 19. The case had been placed on the Feb. 25 court docket for the 32nd Judicial Circuit Court and was scheduled for March.
Circuit clerk records did not indicate why the trial date was changed. Neither the prosecutor in the case nor Freeman’s defense attorney could be reached for comment on the rescheduled trial date by the deadline of this article.
Hanceville police reports indicate Freeman was arrested at 5:03 p.m. on Aug. 22, 2007 at his residence on the 1600 block of Ash Wonder Street. Investigators charged him with three counts of possession of obscene material.
Lt. Jimmy Rodgers of the Hanceville Police Department said his investigation into Freeman’s alleged activities began several months prior to the arrest.
“We received a tip on May 6, 2006 of possible child porn,” Rodgers said.
Rodgers said he obtained a warrant to search Freeman’s residence that day and seized the man’s computer. The computer was then sent to the Alabama Bureau of Investigations (ABI) for analysis.
“They worked on the hard drive and determined there was probable cause that there was child pornography,” Rodgers said. “There was several images.”
Rodgers noted the long time between Hanceville police seizing the computer and Freeman’s arrest is typical when dealing with the ABI.
“The ABI has a very large caseload,” Rodgers said. “Sometimes you’re looking at between a year and a year and a half.”
Freeman was incarcerated at the Cullman County Detention Center the day of his arrest with a $40,000 bond. He made bail the following day and has been free ever since.
Rodgers said law enforcement agencies across the country have seen an increase in child pornography cases in recent years due to the Internet.
“Since the Internet came out ... because of the capability people have today, we’re seeing more of these types of crimes,” Rodgers said.
According to the Alabama Code of Law, any person who knowingly possesses pornographic material of a person less than 17-years-old is guilty of a Class C felony and could face between one and 10 years in prison.

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