Viewing Baby-Rape Photos Nets Jail
Stark grandmother, 59, gets 11 months for having Internet child pornography
By John Higgins, Beacon Journal staff writer
Originally published in the Akron Beacon Journal, July 31, 2001
CANTON — The couple of dozen pictures that a 59-year-old Perry Township grandmother received over the Internet included men raping babies.
Although Anita Hoot pleaded guilty to viewing sexual material involving a minor and helped lead police to the man she says sent her the photos, she still received almost the maximum penalty. A Stark County Common Pleas Court judge sentenced her yesterday to 11 out of a possible 12 months in jail.
Hoot shook her head in denial as Judge Richard D. Reinbold Jr. told her that she had chosen to view the pictures of adults sexually abusing young children and infants. "Do not shake your head," Reinbold said. "You crossed a line I can't comprehend."
He threatened to lock up Hoot's 63-year-old husband, Cyril Hoot, and their daughter Alicia Slagle, 40, who sat in the rear of the courtroom and also shook their heads as he spoke.
"There can't be child pornography if there aren't people looking at it," Reinbold said. "If your family can't understand that, then I feel sorry for your family."
The man Hoot says sent her the photos, 45-year-old Craig A. Limbach of Massillon, is to go on trial next month; he's accused of possessing thousands of child-rape photos and arranging to rape two girls, aged 1 and 2, in a Lincoln Way East home.
Hoot told Reinbold that she thought she had deleted the pictures and didn't know they still were on her computer's hard drive.
"This has been a nightmare," Hoot said. "I've never been in trouble like this with the law before. I lost my job over it. I lost my home."
Outside the courtroom, Hoot's husband and daughter said Hoot was guilty only of not telling authorities about Limbach when she received the photos. "(Reinbold) put it pretty hard on her," her husband said. "I don't think she deserved what she got."
Hoot's lawyer, Jeffrey Haupt, told Reinbold that Hoot should receive a less severe sentence because of her age, her cooperation with authorities and the unlikelihood that she would commit the crime again.
Reinbold said that a lesser sentence would send the wrong message to other offenders.
Assistant Stark County Prosecutor Malynda Reed said the images transmitted to Hoot were "the most disturbing thing I've ever seen."
Hoot met Limbach in an Internet chat room, Reed said. "She was on the computer up to eight hours a day."
Hoot met many people in such chat rooms, using various sexually suggestive pseudonyms. Sex talk with Limbach on the Internet led to in-person oral sex at Sippo Lake, Reed said.
Hoot contends that when she received the baby-rape photos, she told Limbach to stop sending them.
An employee in a Massillon computer shop told police that Hoot had child pornography on her computer's hard drive, which she had brought in for repair.
When Hoot picked up her computer, police were waiting for her. She told the officers she was the only person with access to her computer and that she had grandchildren living with her.
Massillon Detective Bobby Grizzard got Hoot to cooperate in a sting operation that led to Limbach's arrest.
Limbach is charged with attempting to commit rape and several sex offenses involving children.
Reed said there's no way to tell from the photos if the children are local.
Grizzard said he could not comment on the Hoot or Limbach cases, but he offered advice for anybody who receives child pornography over the Internet: Report it to law enforcement immediately. Don't print the picture, but save the e-mail and return address for authorities.
The offenders who are prosecuted usually aren't those who stumble onto a Web site once or twice or receive one or two pictures from a stranger. The cases typically involve multiple images of adults raping victims who are obviously children.
"Child pornography is a big business," Grizzard said. "We need the assistance of law-abiding citizens."
