An classic country radio station serving a rural Arizona area that aired a public service announcement for two years telling people how to hide potential evidence in child pornography cases has stopped doing so after advertisers received threats, the station's owner said Wednesday.
According to CBS News, Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels said he formally opened an investigation Tuesday that includes seeking legal advice from the county attorney on whether charges can be filed in connection with the public service announcement, CBS affiliate KPHO reports.
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KAVV 97.7 FM owner Paul Lotsof said in an interview that he does not like child pornography but created the announcement because he thinks Arizona's 10-year minimum sentence for each image of child porn is too harsh and costly for taxpayers.
"Nobody put me up to it, and nobody paid," he said. "My feeling is that these people don't deserve life in prison just because they have pictures of naked juveniles."
'The announcement described Arizona's tough penalties for possession of child pornography and then provides advice on how to avoid convictions.
It said: "If you have such material, you can save yourselves and your family a ton of grief and save the taxpayers a lot of money by never storing such pictures on the hard drive of your computer. Always use an external drive and hide it where nobody will ever find it. Likewise, never keep paper pictures, tapes or films of naked juveniles where anybody else can find them."
The announcement drew the attention of local law enforcement officials, with Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels calling it "disgusting and unacceptable" and encouraging "evil behavior."
On Wednesday Lotsof pulled the PSA off-air.
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