Attorney sentenced to prison in child-porn case

Once a religion teacher to Catholic children, Las Vegas attorney Nancy Estabrook publicly acknowledged her slide from a life of achievement and success to the dark side of drug abuse and child pornography.

She hit bottom Thursday when District Judge Jeff Sobel sentenced her to a prison term of between 18 months and six years.

The Bishop Gorman High School graduate, whose law license has been surrendered because of unspecified medical problems, had pleaded guilty to possessing two videotapes of child pornography and being an accessory after the fact to the use of a minor in the production of pornography.

The tapes purport to show her husband, Lee Estabrook, having sex with the woman's then-9-year-old niece. The edited 1995 tapes found their way to authorities when Nancy Estabrook, 33, presented them as evidence during the couple's bitter divorce and court battle over their then-3-year-old child.

The girl was drugged into unconsciousness and says she remembers nothing of the incident, Deputy District Attorney Doug Herndon said.

Lee Estabrook is in jail awaiting trial on multiple charges of sexual assault of a minor and child pornography. A conviction could result in a life prison sentence. His attorney, Joe Houston, said Lee Estabrook doesn't dispute he was in the video that showed a man engaged in sexual acts with the girl, but he has maintained that Nancy Estabrook was the person behind the camera and whose hand could be seen occasionally in the pictures.

In court Thursday she vigorously denied that, stating that despite her extensive drug use at the time "I had boundaries."

"How could your niece be drugged in your own home?" Sobel asked.

She explained that she was a regular marijuana user at the time and likely was asleep in another part of the house when the video was made.

Houston, however, has told authorities that she admitted to him during conversations about the couple's divorce case that she was behind the camera.

Her attorney, Steve Stein, urged Sobel not to impose prison time because Nancy Estabrook has beaten her drug problem, is working as a legal secretary and has her life back on track.

Stein said he is opposed to prison as "punishment for punishment sake."

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