Stephen Jenson to serve minimum sentence for possession of child porn
Former University of Michigan Hospital resident Stephen Jenson will serve the minimum of three years in federal prison for one charge of possession of child pornography, his lawyer said Friday.
Stephen Jenson
Jenson was sentenced Thursday afternoon by United States Court Judge Avern Cohn, Raymond Cassar said. The hearing made Jenson’s attempt at a plea deal in September, when Cohn originally rejected his attempt to plead guilty to the single charge, officials said.
Cassar said Jenson was truly remorseful in court Thursday and Cohn decided it was better to treat Jenson in lieu of putting him behind bars for a longer period.
“We worked very hard to prove to the government that Stephen was not a threat and this was an isolated incident,” Cassar said. “He was amenable to treatment in the community.”
Cassar said Jenson self-surrendered and is expected to begin serving his sentence within 60 days. Cassar said Cohn requested Jenson serve his time at a facility near his home in Utah.
Jenson’s arrest in December 2011 set off a firestorm of controversy inside the University of Michigan. It was revealed by AnnArbor.com weeks later that there had been a six-month delay in reporting the incident from the time hospital employees discovered the images of child pornography on Jenson’s computer to the time the discovery was reported to police.
A hospital employee discovered images of child pornography on a thumbdrive left in a hospital computer in May 2011. By the end of June 2011, eight people knew the images on the thumb drive belonged to Jenson. However, hospital attorneys decided not to turn the incident over to the University of Michigan Police.
It wasn’t until November 2011 that someone notified police investigators. Jenson was charged and then fired from the hospital. State charges of possession of child sexually abusive material were dropped in favor of the federal charges, which alleged he had almost 100 images of child pornography in his possession, along with four videos.
After the reporting gap was discovered, several investigations were launched. A university internal review resulted in a report released in February 2012. The university’s Board of Regents also ordered an external review, and the U.S. Department of Education did its own review into the reporting gap.
At the hearing in September, Jenson admitted to having the images in his possession.
“On my computer, I had images of children of an illegal nature,” Jenson told Cohen, confirming later that they were pornographic.
Originally, the plea deal being considered by Jenson and his attorney and U.S. District Attorney Matthew Roth called for Jenson to serve between six and seven-and-a-quarter years in prison. In court documents, Roth argued for a sentence of four years.
According to court documents, Roth said the children in the photographs were originally victimized when the photos were taken. He said Jenson viewing those pictures only made them victims once again.
“The children depicted in Defendant’s collection were victims of sexual exploitation at the hands of their abusers,” Roth stated. “Now, these children are victims once more at the hands of Defendant.”
However, Cassar successfully argued the sentence down one more year.
According to documents Cassar filed, evaluators deemed Jenson a low-risk to reoffend and said he presents no predatory harm to children. Cassar said Jenson’s role as a doctor gave the unfair impression he was working in medicine to gain access to children.
Cassar said Friday that part of the reason Jenson was able to receive the minimum sentence is that there is no evidence he ever physically laid his hands on children.
“Through the psych evaluation we did on Mr. Jenson, it was shown there was no hands-on contact and he did not pose any threat,” Cassar said. “He was easily treatable in the community, according to his therapist.”
“The most important thing is this was not a long series of events. This is not a vast collection. Ninety-seven images, that’s not a huge amount when mixed in with adult ponography and that’s something that’s often overlooked.”
Cassar said Jenson had a mind that was wired to understand cancer and that was the disease he wanted to fight. Now that he will be heading to prison, that career is all but lost, he said.
“A tremendously bright future has been lost,” Cassar said. “He had a lot of potential to do a lot of good. He wanted to study cancer and cancer treatments, and because of the way this thing went down, that might be lost.”
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
sheri barron RN,BSN
Sun, Apr 28, 2013 : 5:58 p.m.
The person from HR whom contacted my State Farm agent to tell them that I had been on 'Workman's Compensation a few times, was on a previous disability 'that was not physical,' and 'had a history with them so they were going to start IME's, actually got promoted with a $10k raise. Please see www.google.com sheri barron on vimeo for the court case and how the Ann Arbor Judge gave me about 15 min. for my defense. By the way...The UMICH lawyer said that filling out an incident report was the first step in Workman's Comp. so therefore, HR was not defaming me when they called State Farm and said that. I have never been on Workman's Compensation in my life. I still want an investigation!
sheri barron RN,BSN
Sun, Apr 28, 2013 : 5:50 p.m.
At least there was an investigation. It appears that it takes a criminal action to get an investigation out of the University.
BhavanaJagat
Sun, Mar 24, 2013 : 4:37 p.m.
The problem of human identity: Firstly, I want to express my feelings of sympathy to this young doctor who has to spend time in a prison. There is a problem associated with human identity. We try to know people by looking at their physical appearance and recognize the age, gender, race, and other aspects of identity. But, when we come to the problem called cancer, we will be forced to look at the cells that display the problem of cancer. Our focus shifts to knowing the human organism as a multicellular unit and we will be compelled to study those molecules which play a role in knowing a healthy cell and a cancerous cell. The problem called pornography, the obsession associated with viewing sexually arousing images will simply disappear when we resolve the problem of human perception. We have to know the true, or real human being.
Linda Peck
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 11:24 p.m.
Another shock is peoples' responses here that seem to condone what Mr. Jenson did. I can see arguing about the length of sentence, but to say what he did was not even a crime? There are children who have been badly and deeply hurt in this horrific business.
Sam S Smith
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 12:44 p.m.
I agree that this is a horrific crime and think that pedophiles, if released, need to be watched like a hawk. Probation and GPS for life after a very long prison sentence.
oyxclean
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 1:51 a.m.
Yeah, that really surprised me, too.
a2xarob
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 11:21 p.m.
I get the sense that some people's lack of awareness to the way pornography desensitizes men to the sexual objectification of children and women indicates overexposure to pornography. If you do not understand what I mean by this, ask your daughter, your sister, or your mother. Possession of child pornography is a crime; giving points for the relative exploitative or abusive nature of the images reflects a particularly male point of view on the part of the authors of this part of the criminal code I think.
Linda Peck
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 11:16 p.m.
I am shocked by the phrase at the end of this article, "because of the way this thing went down" in reference to the fact that Mr. Jenson will not be able to make a contribution to the study of cancer now. These are real children who have been harmed in a horrific manner and Mr. Jenson perpetuated this horror all on his own.
Ann Arbor Nurse
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 11:11 p.m.
It is a sad story all around. I hope that through counseling he is able to give up this child porn problem and find a way to live a happy and productive life after he serves his time.
Paul
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 10:24 p.m.
That is house arrest for a year over in Canada..at the most. Glad the see the USA crackdown more so and certain things, its just too bad they sometimes can get carried away.
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:39 p.m.
Was it a coincidence that this was finally reported on November 18 and Chief O'dell abruptly resigned right after the Thankgiving holiday with no notice? He was hired at EMU to clean up after they failed to report a rape/murder. What did he think about this failure to report this to the police?
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:36 p.m.
Where is the outrage against the University who covered this up for 6 months and almost covered it up forever? Why isn't anyone at the University facing charges?
SEC Fan
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 2:12 p.m.
exactly! sounds like UM uses the Catholic church's guidelines for reporting...
A2Momx2
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:29 p.m.
I am amazed (I don't know why) at his lawyer's comments. "through the psych evaluation it was shown there was no hands-on contact and he did not pose any threat." How does a pediatrician have "no hands-on contact" with children? Also, "he wanted to study cancer and cancer treatments, and because of the way this thing went down, that might be lost". If he truly wants to study cancer and cancer treatments I suppose he could work ALONE in a lab. I agree with an earlier comment that 97 images and 4 videos IS A VAST collection. I also agree that it should have been taken into consideration that he felt the NEED, URGE and DESIRE to bring these images to work---not just to view at home.
Matt Cooper
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 1:10 a.m.
1. "...through the psych evaluation it was shown there was no hands-on contact" He was referring to the children in the pictures (the victims of the crime), not to the doctors patients. To date, not one shred of evidence has been presented that Dr. Jensen ever had any sort of inappropriate contact with any patient. Let's not convict the man for things he hasn't done. 2. "If he truly wants to study cancer and cancer treatments I suppose he could work ALONE in a lab." Very few doctors work on things like this 'ALONE". They work in teams with other doctors and sometimes involve direct patient care. And as stated earlier, there is no evidence he ever had improper contact with any patient. 3. "...he felt the NEED, URGE and DESIRE to bring these images to work---not just to view at home." Did you ever consider that maybe he brought the thumb drive to work because it had other work related things on it? Research papers (he was a researcher after all)? Reports? I have a thumb drive with hundreds of items on it from my classes at EMU, WCC, homework projects, papers I've written, powerpoint presentations, etc. And if you're implying that he viewed these images at work, you would be wrong. There is no evidence that he ever viewed any images of a sexual nature at work.
Paul
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 10:28 p.m.
You gotta wounder what else he may have done in the past
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:12 p.m.
Why isn't anyone asking why the Feds took over this case from the State? It did not involve distribution or production of child pornography. If the feds took over every case of possession, they would be flooded with cases. The only thing that distiguishes this possession cases from others is the delay in reporting it to police. Since such failure to report sexual crimes may fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Department of Education, it would seem likely that this is the reason the Feds took over the case. Why then can the public not know the findings of the DOE investigation. Get out your pen and file a federal FOIA, Kyle.
Arborcomment
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 1:06 a.m.
And put the pen to another FOIA request. Need to see the paid for; Regent's report deep-sixed under "attorney-client privilege".
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:08 p.m.
The headline is misleading. There is no minimum sentence for possession of child pornography. The 36 month minimum was part of the plea deal between the defendent and the prosecutor, not a statutory minimum. Also, the judge said that he must self surrender within 90 days not 60 days.
pu2um
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 8:42 p.m.
@Silly Sally The Regents should release the external report to assure the public that all those who bungled this incident have been held accountable.
Silly Sally
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 5:18 p.m.
I'm still surprised that he brought the flash drive to work. Then, when it was discovered, he logged in the next day. Then to ensure that he was caught, he kept porn on his home PC. We are fortunate that he did not have the sense to remove it all from his home. If he had, he would still be working at UM. Or if Penn State football coach Sandusky had not been caught, Jenson still would be working at UM, since UM ignored it until the Penn State affair.
Atticus F.
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 4:57 p.m.
I am in no way condoning the crime, but this person has has his life ruined as a result of his crimes. I get the sense that some peoples lust for revenge and retribution will not be satisfied until this man is sentenced to 300 years in a dental pain simulator.
Paul
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 10:30 p.m.
Why do you think some are for the death penalty, its not for keeping us safe, its for revenge.
Atticus F.
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 8:46 p.m.
Bulldog5, 2 wrongs don't make a rite.
Bulldog5
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 7:52 p.m.
Considering the pain this type of crime causes and perpetuates, you are probably not far wrong.
oyxclean
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 5:18 p.m.
The guy ruined his own life. No one forced him to commit this crime. Boo hoo, now he has to live with the consequences.
Sam S Smith
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 4:56 p.m.
Stephen was not a threat and this was an isolated incident," Cassar said. Unfortunately, this man will always be a threat because there is no treatment that is successful for treating pedophilia. Perhaps, Jensen could pursue finding a treatment for pedophilia instead of understanding cancer. I hope Jensen and other pedophiles will be watched like a hawk the rest of his/their life where ever he is, whatever he does.
AnneArbor
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 4:20 p.m.
"This is not a vast collection. Ninety-seven images, that's not a huge amount when mixed in with adult ponography and that's something that's often overlooked." 97 images is not a huge amount? That statement in and of itself is disturbing.
Angry Moderate
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 7:09 p.m.
gladys, how do you know they are different children in each image?
gladys
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 5:24 p.m.
That's at least 97 children (probably more) who are IMO abused every time someone sees them in a porno photo. He should be locked up for life.
UpperDecker
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 3:40 p.m.
Why exactly are people defending a pedophile? Lock him up for life for all I care.
JRA
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 3:20 p.m.
"A tremendously bright future has been lost," Cassar said. "He had a lot of potential to do a lot of good. He wanted to study cancer and cancer treatments, and because of the way this thing went down, that might be lost." .....So, according to Cassar, Jenson's tremendously bright future might be lost "BECAUSE OF THE WAY THIS THING WENT DOWN"???? How about Jensen's bright future is lost because of his illegal and disgusting behavior, NOT because of the way things went down. Good grief.
UloveM
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 3:07 p.m.
Will Stephen Jenson see patients in the jail?
Craig Lounsbury
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2:50 p.m.
"Cassar said Jenson was truly remorseful in court Thursday and Cohn decided it was better to treat Jenson in lieu of putting him behind bars for a longer period." If there was a treatment that worked I'd be all on board. I don't believe there is a treatment that works for the demons that haunt people like Stephen Jenson. If those people never ever act on their urges the rest of use will never know and they can live their lives as normally as possible on the surface.
justcurious
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2:37 p.m.
Welcome to a graphic display of the failure of our American courts system.
sesomai
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 1:40 p.m.
There seems to be almost as much wrong with Raymond Cassar as there is with his client. For example, " Ninety-seven images, that's not a huge amount when mixed in with adult pornography..." That's 97 more images than most people have. Or what about, ""A tremendously bright future has been lost," Cassar said." What the hell? Or how about, "Cassar said Jenson's role as a doctor gave the unfair impression he was working in medicine to gain access to children." I don't think this is an unfair impression given that he was in pediatrics.
Basic Bob
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2:08 p.m.
I would be concerned that someday his access to children might become a problem. Maybe it takes 30 or 40 years until he is caught again.
Kyle Feldscher
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2:02 p.m.
sesomai - I think it's pretty normal for a defense attorney to be sympathetic to his or her client. Cassar deals with many child pornography cases and I'm sure he's dealt with ones when defendants have hundreds, if not thousands, of images and videos on their computers. I think that's what he's trying to get across there, just speaking from my experiences with him.
An Arborigine
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 1:27 p.m.
Perhaps a harsher punishment is he can say goodbye to that medical practice.
dexterreader
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:49 p.m.
Wow! So you are saying it's ok to possess it, just not bring it to work??
Basic Bob
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2:06 p.m.
I'm going to speculate that the vast majority of people who look at child porn go undetected because they keep it to themselves.
oyxclean
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:50 p.m.
That's exactly what he is saying. Disgusting, isn't it?
NewStart
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:40 p.m.
...just stupid to bring this into work, however....this means he was obsessive. That's creepy, but should not be criminal.
oyxclean
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:38 p.m.
"A tremendously bright future has been lost," Cassar said. "He had a lot of potential to do a lot of good. He wanted to study cancer and cancer treatments, and because of the way this thing went down, that might be lost." Excuse me, what? Is his lawyer really blaming the court system for his client's predicament? Your client is a PEDOPHILE and that's why he lost his career.
Matt Cooper
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 12:43 a.m.
I don't see him as blaming the courts at all. I think what he's trying to get across is that this is a tragic situation and a tragic outcome. The fact that Jensen had a bright future and potential to do great things is a fact. As is the point that he's now lost his medical career. And they are also tragic.
NewStart
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:36 p.m.
3 years for being curious? Did he approach any little children? NO! We may not LIKE what he has done, however this type of prosecution goes too far for a FREE AMERICA!
PattyinYpsi
Sat, Mar 23, 2013 : 1:22 p.m.
It is illegal to download pornographic images of children. "Curiosity" has nothing to do with it. Got it?
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:26 p.m.
Actually, there is no evidence that he was viewing these pictures at work. They were simply on the thumb drive that he brought to work. The reason that the other resident physician knew it was his thumb drive was because she opened a Word document that had his name on it that was on the same drive. I am not saying that it makes it a better or worse crime if he viewed it a work but if you think that it makes it a worse crime, you should know that there is no evidence that he viewed any pictures at work.
Honor
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 1:26 p.m.
The fact that he was viewing these at work, goes beyond curiosity. Someone who is curious would view these at home. Besides if you are curious about looking at naked children or children in sexually explicit material, then you deserve much worse than what this person got.
rayjay
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 1:23 p.m.
Sorry, but it is that type of "curiosity" that drives the market for these images. A curious person might view such pictures the web. He had possession of them. No excuses for that.
kmgeb2000
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:28 p.m.
"We worked very hard to prove to the government that Stephen was not a threat and this was an isolated incident,"...... I'm sorry but possession of child pornography is not an isolated incident. His being caught was the isolated incident. Digital images did not magically fall onto the flash drive. It took a deliberate action to find them, download then, put them on the flash drive, and then BRING THEM TO WORK. Ask the children in the images if the outcome for them was an "isolated incident" to be forgotten or do they carry with them the horrible experience for the remainder of their lives?
simone66
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 2 p.m.
I agree kmgeb2000 - Regardles of the 'type' of child porn and the 'low' quantity of the images does nothing to convince me that this entire thing was an isolated incidence. The very fact that he felt the urge, desire, and NEED to bring that flash drive to work, and use UMHS computers to view that thumbdrive, demonstrates a strong developed need to look at pornographic images of children at any time of the day. This lost career issue falls solely upon the shoulders of Jensen. He made the decision to look at the most innocent of people being used in dreadful sexual way. And now he can't help in finding a cure for cancer.
Billy
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:55 p.m.
"His being caught was the isolated incident. " Exactly!
Irwin Daniels
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:13 p.m.
This is scary: U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn said though Jenson's crime did meet such factors for increasing the sentence, the guidelines are irrelevant to the case. Cohn pointed out that computers are universally used to view child pornography and the amount of images that Jenson possessed was not large compared to other cases. So Jenson gets less time - "not as bad as some people" What is that judge thinking?
Matt Cooper
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 11:27 p.m.
Billy, if investigators/judges/prosecuting attorneys don't look at the images, how do you suppose they know what the sentence should be? How do they verify that it wasn't simply photos of cars? Clouds? Pretty little butterflies? Please tell me that you don't really believe that prosecutors or judges viewing the images is a crime. If that were the case, we might as well stop cops from chasing criminals in cars, because, you know, speeding is a crime too, and we don't want to have to arrest every cop every time he chases a criminal, now do we?
trespass
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 9:19 p.m.
The problem is not with the sentence, it is with the reporting. The sentence he got was in line with the federal guidelines. The only thing the judge questioned was how the number of images was counted and whether one should recieve additional punishment because the defendent viewed them on a computer rather than as printed pictures. In other words, is it a worse crime to view a film on acetate than a video on a computer. The judge said no. The comments indicate that the headline is misleading. He did not get the minimum sentence, he got what the judge thought the guidelines called for.
sesomai
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 1:32 p.m.
@Billy: People who possess child pornography are convicted because they are in possession of an illegal item. Their conviction is not because of their thoughts, but because of how they have acted on those thoughts.
Billy
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:53 p.m.
Actually the way the do sentencing for child porn is based on the quantity of media (how many pictures) and the content of each picture. Did you know....that a group of people sits down and goes through EVERY child porn collection they find....and they "grade" the pictures based on the content in them. Then those "Grades" are used to assign a "point value" to each picture and those points are added up to determine sentencing guild lines to follow... The irony is that the "crime" this guy is accused of...is literally being perpetrated by every single "legal official" that comes along and views them "for the case." The crime of course being that the victims in those pictures are abused every time someone sees those pictures....so why is it ok for the police to look at them too? Oh because the police won't have nefarious thoughts when looking at them? Well how do you know what someone else is thinking? Because they're police? Please..... Speaking of thinking....is that what we're really punishing him for? His immoral thoughts? I mean yes....he's charged with possession of child porn....but the "crime" he's actually accused of is being sexually attracted to children...not molesting or abusing them....but THINKING about them. Like most people, I obviously don't condone child molestation....but I hesitate GREATLY to convict someone upon their fantasies alone....that's approaching thought-crime territory...
theodynus
Fri, Mar 22, 2013 : 12:34 p.m.
Exactly right. Why do you think there's flexibility in sentencing? Less-bad guys get closer to the minimum than more-bad guys.