No Charges Against Photographer
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No charges will be filed against Laguna Beach photographer Marilyn Lennon over photographs she took of a partially nude 12-year-old girl at a professional workshop in Santa Fe, N.M.
“There’s not going to be a criminal prosecution,” said Caroline Bass, an assistant district attorney in Santa Fe. Bass said she made the determination after reviewing a file prepared by investigators with the Santa Fe Police Department.
The file has been turned over to the New Mexico Department of Labor, Bass said, for investigation of possible violations of regulations involving work permits.
Lennon said Friday she was relieved but not surprised.
“The whole time, I knew I had not done anything,” she said. She took the photographs in June at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshop, in a weeklong session led by nationally known art photographer Joyce Tenneson.
On Oct. 1, Lennon took three slides of a 12-year-old female model, nude from the waist up, to Irvine Photo Graphics for printing, and the lab decided to alert police. After three days of investigation, Irvine Police decided that because the photos were taken in Santa Fe, the case was not in the department’s jurisdiction. It was also determined that Lennon could not be charged with possession of pornographic material under California law.
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