Tampa lawyer’s disbarment after child pornography charges

A Tampa legal professional who was sentenced to 8 several years of sex offender probation and no jail time immediately after pleading responsible to 34 counts of little one pornography expenses however will not “acknowledge the wrongful character of his conduct,” a Florida choose explained.

Which is not from the judge who sentenced 52-yr-previous Chris Ragano in his legal circumstance, but the choose who was the referee in his Florida Bar willpower case.

In recommending Ragano’s disbarment — an motion the point out Supreme Court docket took on Dec. 8 — Pinellas County Circuit Court docket Judge George Mark Jirotka quoted the concerns of certified psychological wellness counselor Dr. Wendy Coughlin and Ragano’s very own testimony in detailing why he felt Ragano showed a “refusal to admit the wrongful character of the perform.”

Ragano, from the Tampa suburb of Valrico, pleaded guilty to 33 counts of child pornography possession and a person count of out-of-condition transmission of little one pornography by an electronic machine. But, on the internet Hillsborough County legal court data say Ragano created a “guilty ideal interest plea” or what’s frequently termed an “Alford plea” — legally expressing a responsible plea is in your ideal desire while also retaining that you’re innocent of the prices.

Hillsborough County Circuit Courtroom Judge Lyann Goudie sentenced Ragano just after a plea settlement had been attained by the Point out Attorney’s Office environment for Hillsborough County’s Brooke Padgett and Ragano’s lawyer, Bryant Camareno. Formally, adjudication is withheld on all expenses (legally, Ragano’s not “convicted”), and Ragano obtained 8 yrs probation on the possession prices and five a long time probation on the transmission cost, to be served at the similar time.

A condition attorney’s business spokesperson explained to Tampa Tv set station WFLA that Ragano also bought six months of jail time, but Ragano was credited for time served as section of the plea arrangement.

According to Jirotka’s referee’s report in the Bar situation, the criminal report affidavit said “the children depicted in the pornographic and erotica photos on [Ragano’s] laptop ended up mentioned as young children below the age of 10.”

Hillsborough County court docket documents say Ragano submitted for divorce in May perhaps from his spouse with whom he has young children.

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Ragano claimed “professional curiosity” received him in problems

The plea bargain and sentence taken care of the prison side of matters. Ragano is on sexual offender probation till Dec. 13, 2029.

But, the Bar willpower motion in opposition to Ragano, who was admitted in 1997, manufactured testimony from 2022 in entrance of Jirotka, appointed as referee to listen to the situation and make a advice to the point out Supreme Courtroom. From Ragano’s testimony, Jirotka famous:

▪ [Ragano] claimed he went into the darkish world-wide-web to locate illustrations or photos “out of”professional curiosity” similar to an difficulty a consumer experienced formerly faced. This study was performed in spite of the fact that [Ragano] no for a longer period represented the customer.”

▪ Ragano obtained caught only “because he clicked the mistaken button. [Ragano] intended to help you save the images to his very own personal computer only, but unintentionally pressed a button which saved them to Microsoft, ensuing in the discovery of his misconduct.”

▪ He “denied downloading real kid pornography [Ragano] indicated that he searched “fake kid porn” and that the photographs had been of children’s faces on an adult human body.” Jirotka explained this ran against the “detailed descriptions contained in the prison report affidavit.”

▪ Ragano insisted the pictures weren’t little one pornography and “the Point out Attorney’s Place of work did not have a powerful case.”

Jirotka felt Ragano’s testimony supported an April 2022 report from Coughlin just after Ragano experienced been in a few months of sexual procedure treatment.

Coughlin, a certified mental well being counselor in Florida because 1988, wrote that working experience of dealing with “bright and very well-trained” people brought problem that Ragano “will use his excellent intellectual ability to look at himself out of the sexual offender population and continue on to decrease his behavior justifying that he did not indicate to look at the child pornography and was performing exercises experienced curiosity.”

Jirotka didn’t acquire Ragano’s testimony, producing that Ragano confirmed a “pattern of misconduct” for the reason that “he intentionally procured a computer system with the sole intent to search the dim world wide web for boy or girl pornography, carried out his approach to lookup the darkish net for the photos, and intentionally saved the visuals to his laptop or computer.”

Jirotka recommended disbarment of five several years.

This tale was originally released January 1, 2023 12:02 PM.