Bath Time Photos of Children Result in Parents’ Nightmare: Walmart & State of AZ Screw Up Royally
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on September 18, 2009
In Arizona, employees of a Walmart determined that out of a group of 144 photographs that a family took of their fun-filled vacation in San Diego, that seven or eight partially nude photos that were of the family’s children taking a bath warranted lengthy investigation into child abuse and child pornography.
The children were taken away by Child Protective Services for a MONTH. The parents were denied seeing their daughters for several days. They were eventually cleared and all charges dropped.
I’m stunned.
This is the absolute worse judgment I’ve read from local news sources this week… it could be every parent’s nightmare who has ever taken a photograph of his or her child sans full clothing. There is something horribly wrong when a law can do this to an innocent family. Yes, children are abused and laws are necessary to protect them. However, this obviously wasn’t the case. The photos were NOT pornographic, as any parent could attest. Heck, many parents up until recent times had studio photos taken of their nude babies laying on a bearskin-type rug, and had these photos framed and displayed in their homes. These types of photos were popular with parents for several decades. Now, they could be used against a parent, claiming they were “kiddie porn.”
This grievous miscarriage of authority should never have happened, not in America. No burden of proof, no presumption of innocence. Common sense and parental rights have gone right out (homage to the old Beatles’ song) through the bathroom window.
Erring on the side of caution has morphed into zero tolerance nonsense for law-abiding American citizens, while on the flip side, so many left-wing extremists believe we should mollycoddle and read Miranda rights to radical al Qaeda terrorists.
It’s an era of bizarre extremes and contradictions anymore. While children must indeed be protected from the heinous acts that adults can inflict upon them, the pendulum has swung far too wildly in this case.
I have too many questions on this story. How many other parents over the years have taken similarly harmless photos of their children and could now be prosecuted? What’s in YOUR camera that could be used against you as a parent? What are the rules, the barometer, for someone, likely untrained in a drug store photo development department, to summon the police and/or CPS without warning and put a family through living hell?
These are Draconian actions that caused immeasurable harm to this innocent family. The parents are now suing Walmart, the state attorney’s office, and the state of Arizona, to which I say (and I despise most lawsuits), you go for it.
Here’s the news report:
From Dustin Gardiner, azcentral.com:
Peoria parents sue Walmart, state over kids’ nude bath pics
September 17, 2009A Peoria couple is suing Walmart and the state after they were accused of sexual abuse for taking bathtime photos of their daughters, according to court papers.
Lisa and Anthony “A.J.” Demaree’s three young daughters were taken away by state Child Protective Services last fall when a Walmart employee found partially nude pictures of the girls on a camera memory stick taken to the store for processing, the lawsuit claims.
Walmart turned the photos over to police and the Demarees were not allowed to see their children for several days and did not regain custody for a month while the state investigated, according to their lawyer, Richard Treon.
Treon said the images in question were part of a group of 144 photographs taken mostly the family’s vacation in San Diego. He said there were seven to eight bath- and playtime photos of the girls that showed a “portion or outline or genitalia.”
At the time of the incident, the girls were 5, 4 and 1 1/2.
It was about “wanting to admire their (children’s) beauty,” Treon said. “There was nothing sexual about it.”
Neither parent was charged with sexual abuse and they regained custody of their children, but the Demarees say the incident inflicted lasting harm.
In two separate lawsuits, the Demarees say the “slanderous claims” state officials made during the investigation caused them serious economic losses. They also claim to have since suffered “emotional stress, headaches, nightmares, a general feeling of malaise, shock to their nervous system, grief and depression.”
“This is a parent’s worst nightmare,” Treon said. “This is a serious incursion on people’s lives and privacy.”
The Demarees are seeking an undetermined amount of monetary damages from both Walmart and the state and have requested a jury trial.
One lawsuit names the state of Arizona, Peoria and the state Attorney General’s Office as defendants, claiming that employees from each party defamed them by telling friends, family members and coworkers that they had “sexually abused” their children by taking pornographic pictures of them.
Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Hunter is specifically accused of making slanderous remarks against the Demarees at a hearing where 35 of their friends and family members showed up to testify in support of the couple.
Hunter did not respond to a request for comment.
Spokesman Steve Meissner for the state Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS, would not release any reports relating to the Demarees’ case.
Meissner declined to comment about the lawsuit specifically until his agency received it, though he said CPS has “an obligation to conduct a reasonable investigation” when law enforcement has concerns about a case.
A second lawsuit, naming Walmart as the defendant, says the company is at fault for not telling Anthony Demaree that it had an “unsuitable print policy” and could decide to turn any photos over to law enforcement.
The complaint claims Walmart concealed its policy from Anthony Demaree, causing the couple severe damage.
Survey results photo capture of Arizona Republic survey, as of September 17, 2009
Related reading:
Wall Street Journal, Law Blog: Family Pics Deemed Child Porn by Wal-Mart at Center of Lawsuit
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Suit the woman and wal-mart both. These two did a lot of harm not only to the adult, but the children will lose out. Parent lose there job and trying to find another with this on their records. How cruel to have these children taken away from a safe and protective home and place in a terrible place like a social services. Do you know how many children have been kill in these places. Check the internet.
My 3 kids are now grown adults but I cringe hearing about this case. I say everyone should send photos of their own kids wrapped in towels…to the Peoria, AZ police Dept., to Walmart and to the Ass. Att. General
Honestly, this is unbelievable. Something is very, very wrong with our society when something so innocent and common can raise suspicions of child pornography.
I totally agree… I live in Arizona, just a few cities away from where it occurred, and this grievous abuse of state power is being discussed with great frequency on our local talk radio programs. Everyone is up in arms over this, as they should be. I hope those parents sue the pants off everyone involved.