Crime & Safety

Man Cleared of Canobie Lake Park Child Porn Conviction

State justices granted the Salem man's appeal, ruling that "photographing properly attired children in an open and public" area doesn't fit the charge on which he was originally arrested.

The New Hampshire Supreme Judicial Court has thrown out a child porn conviction for a Salem man because they say he was unlawfully arrested at Canobie Lake Park in 2011 after security guards saw him using his cell phone to take pictures of young girls in swim suits, according to the Union Leader.

David Lantagne, 48, had been sentenced to two to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in October to possessing child pornography, which is something he admitted to police following his arrest on a disorderly conduct charge in connection to the July 2011 Canobie Lake Park incident.

Lantagne appealed his sentence in the state's highest court, and justices there have unanimously ruled that the evidence and confessions used to prove Lantagne was guilty were illegally obtained because police brought him in on a charge that didn't fit the nature of what Lantagne was doing while photographing the girls' backsides, according to the Union Leader.

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The paper has reported that the justices stated that "photographing properly attired children in an open and public portion of Canobie Lake Park" doesn't meet the legal definition of disorderly conduct.

[Read the full Union Leader story here.]

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