Oak Creek man accused of exposing a child to porn

OAK CREEK -- A 50-year-old Oak Creek man is charged with a dozen counts of exposing his own son to pornography. FOX6 News is not identifying the man because of his relationship with the alleged victim in this case and the sensitivity of this story.

In the criminal complaint against the man, the alleged victim, now 18 years old, said "that (beginning at the end of fifth or sixth grade, when he was 11 or 12 years old, and continuing every week until early in his freshman year of high school), his father was giving him pornographic videos which (he) was supposed to watch."

The alleged victim states in the complaint, "before his father started providing him weekly with these movies, his father had started telling him about the birds and the bees, but as these conversations continued they became disturbingly graphic."

The complaint indicates the alleged victim "watched about 100 movies over an approximate two year period, stating he was very scared, and felt that if he didn’t watch them his father would get mad." The complaint also indicates the father threatened the son about not telling anybody "about these" -- referring to the pornographic DVDs.

When interviewed by police, the suspect in this case admitted he purposely put pornographic movies in his son's room "to be nice." "He described how he would put these videos in between the video games so that (his) mother would not find them, but that (he) would know they were there."

The suspect, according to the complaint, told officers "he knew this providing pornographic movies to (his son) was wrong, but he was just trying to be a good dad. He also said that he knew that giving the movies to (his son) was illegal."

Erin Hardy is a psychotherapist with Alliance Counseling Center. She's helped children deal with the effects of trauma in their lives -- whether it's the loss of a loved one, a horrible accident or sex-related acts. Hardy says cases like these are a challenge.

"They have no idea what this all means and especially that coming from a parent makes it even more confusing. Devaluing women, not having meaningful relationships, shame around his own sexuality, isolation, withdrawal, possible depression," Hardy said.

FOX6 News spoke briefly with the accused father Monday. He did not want to make a public comment, calling the situation very personal.

Hardy says if the boy was exposed to a large amount of porn, he will most likely need some form of counseling. "To look at relationships in general, and what are healthy boundaries and what appropriate relationships are would be really important for this young man," Hardy said.

If convicted, the suspect faces up to three-and-a-half years in prison and $10,000 in fines.

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