Man Cleared of Child Exploitation Count : Judge Says Law Protects Sex Researcher’s ‘Unorthodox’ Approach

A self-styled sex researcher who exchanged child pornography with an undercover police detective was acquitted Friday of a child exploitation charge by a judge who decided that the defendant’s “unorthodox” scholarly approach was protected by state law.

Deputy City Atty. Maureen Siegel had argued that Patrick I. LaFollette, 39, of Los Angeles, was not a legitimate scientist and that his real interest in child pornography was erotic, not academic.

A child exploitation bill that took effect in 1982 makes it a misdemeanor--punishable by up to a year in County Jail--to develop, duplicate or exchange, even in private, photographs of children under 14 who are engaged in sexual conduct.

The law, however, exempts law enforcement agencies and “legitimate medical, scientific or educational activities.”

Judge’s Reasoning

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Susan E. Isacoff, who presided over LaFollette’s two-day, non-jury trial, said from the bench, “I can’t tell whether or not this section requires that the (scientific) pursuits be pursuant to a professional, educational institution . . . and whether the results must be for the benefit of society as a whole.

“Therefore I am going to say the (LaFollette’s) activity does fall within the exception and find the defendant not guilty of the charge.”

LaFollette’s only academic credential is a bachelor’s degree in sociology from California State University, Los Angeles. He makes a living as principal owner of a corporation that develops computer software for museums.

But his attorney, David M. Brown, contended that LaFollette has long had an interest in and has been a student of the sociology of human sexual behavior and that LaFollette’s pursuits fall within the legal exception.

LaFollette was one of the founders of a group called Family Synergy--which advocates group marriage and other non-traditional family arrangements--is a nudist, keeps a mistress and has shared a bed with his wife and another man, according to court testimony.

After the verdict, LaFollette said, “The decision says that you don’t have to have credentials in a formal sense in order to be considered a scientist. I feel it’s a vindication of (my) intellectual pursuits. . . .”

Exchanged Magazines

LaFollette was arrested in February, 1984, two months after he exchanged magazines--depicting children in sexually explicit poses--with Los Angeles Police Detective William Dworin on a street near a San Fernando Valley restaurant.

Dworin, who testified during LaFollette’s trial, said he was impersonating a pedophile, one who gains sexual gratification by having sex with children or by looking at pictures that depict such activity.

LaFollette told the judge that he was doing the same thing as part of a 10-year-old research project. Attorney Brown said his client was trying to contact pedophiles to obtain firsthand information about their activities.

Two days after the meeting, police searched the home that LaFollette shares with his wife and two children and seized literature on the subject of pedophilia and a photo album containing sexually explicit photographs of children. All the pictures were commercially--and therefore legally--obtained, Brown said.

The police investigation of LaFollette first began in 1978, according to Siegel, the deputy city attorney, when Dworin, using an alias, responded to an advertisement that LaFollette had placed in a newsletter circulated among pedophiles.

LaFollette testified that he placed the ad as part of his research.