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Gerard Jones to Be Sentenced After Pleading Guilty to Child Pornography Charges in July
Last week, Bleeding Cool pointed out that esteemed comic book writer Gerard Jones was to change his plea of Not Guilty of charges of the possession and distribution of child pornography to that of Guilty. And this happened on Monday.
Subsequently, the sentencing date was set as July 10th.
Prosecution pushed for Jones to be held on remand, but the court denied this motion. The defence cited medical testimony regarding Jones unlikelihood of recidivism as well as letters of support from his community, church and comic book colleagues that were gathered last year while Jones was still pleading not guilty. Under what they called 'exceptional circumstances' the judge decided that Jones was to remain out of custody, pending sentencing. He will return to court in July.
They did grant that certain documents used by the defense to oppose remand be placed under seal over witness privacy issues, and the defense asked that a file be returned to Gerard Jones from the seized equipment. This is likely to be his book that he was working on when he was arrested and charged, and has had others talk about him trying to put back together, Nation of Faith and Flesh: The Moral War that Shaped America. The defense was asked to put together a formal motion for this.
He will return to court on July 10th.