Appellate court upholds conviction of Louisiana man for child porn

NEW ORLEANS – The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s ruling in a Louisiana child pornography case.

Clyde J. Pontefract, of Elizabeth,  pleaded guilty to production of child pornography in Dec. 2010 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison and a life term of supervised release. He appealed his conviction and sentence.

In  the appeal, Pontefract claims that the nude photos he produced of his minor daughter over the course of ten years were not sexually explicit because they did not consist of “lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area”.

He further asserts that in order to constitute child pornography, the images must depict a sexual act, that the image must have traveled in interstate commerce, that the material containing the image must have contained the image when the material traveled in interstate commerce, and that the image must have been commercially marketed.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, as quoted by News Channel 5 in Alexandria said that Pontefract “subjected his minor aged daughter to both physical and sexual abuse.”

Pontefract alleges that his life term of supervised release is unlawful because it makes his total custody more than 30 years, which he says is an absolute maximum. The panel answers that a court may order supervised relief after imprisonment and the term “may be as long as the remainder of the offenders life.”

In a per curiam opinion Circuit Judges Edith H. Jones, James L. Dennis and Catharina Haynes write that Pontefract’s arguments in regards to his conviction “warrant no relief.” He also failed to show that his sentence was unlawful. The court affirmed the lower courts ruling and Pontefract’s conviction stands.

Case No. 12-30094