View the article here.This is just totally insane folks!!
This man did nothing except take pictures. So, if you have photos of your children or someone else' children, you'd better shred them, or the "thought" police may be coming for you soon!
As James Perry's child-sex conviction has come under scrutiny, authorities have publicly cited children's videos and hundreds of children's photos found in Perry's home as proof he is a pedophile.
But former school colleagues dispute that portrait -- saying Perry showed the children's videos on rainy days and was faculty's go-to guy when an assembly or field trip needed photographing.
And a Free Press review of the photos showed multiple images of Perry's younger siblings and a vast collection of seemingly innocuous student photos.
Among the material seized in a February raid of Perry's Ferndale home were videos of the "The Lion King," "Harry Potter," and "Little House on the Prairie," which police and prosecutors claimed pedophiles find erotic, calling it "non-pornographic erotica." The photos included images of young hands and feet.
Oakland County Assistant Prosecutor Andrea Dean told the Free Press the images -- which jurors never saw -- were "very disturbing."
Her boss, Prosecutor David Gorcyca, noted on WJR-AM (760) that the images included video Perry had taken of neighborhood children at play, an assertion not reflected in police reports.
"This guy was videotaping children in neighborhoods and playgrounds for a reason: He's a pedophile," Gorcyca said. In post-conviction interviews with the Free Press, Gorcyca called Perry a "freak" and a "disturbed individual."
But a Free Press review found roughly a third of the photos were of Perry's five half brothers, age 11 to 19, taken during holidays or on vacations. The rest are of Perry's students in class or on field trips, including one in which police appear to be making a presentation.
Some former colleagues, including Ron Payok, a retired principal at Lessenger Elementary, said Perry was often asked to photograph assemblies and outings because he is a skilled photographer.
Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI behavioral analyst who said he coined the phrase "non-pornographic erotica," was skeptical of the prosecution's use of the theory.
Lanning acknowledged that a large collection of seemingly innocent photos of children can be a red flag for investigators, particularly if a suspect has no daily contact with children. But the same collection could be entirely innocent in the hands of an elementary school teacher, he said.
Perry said photos of children's hands and feet were downloaded from a Web site run by a Georgia kindergarten teacher and that he used the "Crazy Socks" photos from the site for a self-identification project. He said he used the video of neighborhood houses for a presentation to the school board on transient students.
