Lawyer: Child porn charges against cop are ‘legal fiction’

by Ken Ritter, Associated Press

Published Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 | 9:06 a.m.

Updated Monday, Oct. 27, 2014 | 12:38 p.m.

Defense attorneys on Monday derided child pornography charges against a suspended Las Vegas police officer as "legal fiction."

James William Henry, 37, stood shackled in court while Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Ann Zimmerman set bail at $100,000 and said he must stay away from minors if he is freed pending a Dec. 19 preliminary hearing.

Henry is facing 20 felony counts of possessing child pornography. An investigation is continuing.

Henry's attorneys, Robert Draskovich and Louis Schneider, said outside court that they expected Henry will post bail.

"This case appears to be a legal fiction," Draskovich said. "It's a classic case of overcharging."

In court, Draskovich denied that Henry had plans to distribute the alleged pornographic images that prosecutor James Sweetin said prompted Google to notify authorities.

Draskovich accused police and prosecutors of filing "imaginary counts" to convince the judge to set a high bail.

In a written filing seeking $400,000 bail, the prosecutor said images uploaded to Henry's Google cloud account involved children as young as 9.

Police have said a tip from Google to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children was investigated by a task force before a warrant was issued last week for Henry's arrest.

Schneider denied Henry had anything to do with the images, and Draskovich said there was no evidence that Henry prepared, advertised or distributed the pictures.

"They can't even show my client put those items in the cloud," Schneider said outside court. "The cloud gets hacked all the time."

Henry was suspended without pay following his arrest Thursday on charges that could put him in prison for decades if he is convicted.

Henry is a 12-year police veteran who patrolled the Las Vegas Convention Center and Strip area before his arrest.