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Accused NY Child Pornographer Walks Free Thanks To Fla. Police Paperwork Snafu
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 28, 2014
Modified Mar 28, 2014
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Troy Police Department
By
Rebecca Fishbein
Published Mar 28, 2014
Modified Mar 28, 2014
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[UPDATE BELOW]
An upstate man accused of child pornography was caught by cops in Florida last night after an extensive search, then released because it took too long to confirm that a warrant existed, apparently. Now, of course, they're hunting for him again.
According to the Times Union, 25-year-old Troy, NY man Jesse Sawyer, Jr. is accused of filming his sexual encounters with a number of children, including one under the age of 5. "In this case we are talking about infants," Troy Police Captain John Cooney said last week. "We are talking about children who are literally only years old; very, very disturbing. And about the worst that I have seen or heard in my time with the department."
But though cops, who became aware of the allegations in January, have been trying to track Sawyer down for some time—even putting out a public plea to help find him last week—he was let go only an hour after getting arrested in Pinellas Park, Florida.
Why? Because the Pinellas Park police department says they didn't get a warrant confirmation from the FBI in time, and naturally police in Troy are not happy. "The warrant was faxed to Pinellas Park within an extremely reasonable period of time," police Sgt. Anthony Conyers said. "It does appear, however, that their decision to release the defendant was premature."
Meanwhile, cops in Florida are annoyed that cops in Troy are putting the blame on them, when they were the ones who made the arrest in the first place. "It's offensive," Pinellas Park Sgt. Adam Geissenberger told the Times Union. "Sawyer did not jump out a window and did not escape custody because he was never legally in custody. He has certain rights."
Now, the search is back on; though Pinellas police returned to the location at which they'd originally found Sawyer soon after letting him go, he had already fled, presumably since he knew cops were onto him in the first place.
Nothing good can come from Florida.
Update 3:42 p.m.:According to Bay News 9, Sawyer is in police custody once again.
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