2015.83 Dean Boland's Threats Untethered From Truth

 Posted on October 25,2015 in Uncategorized

I did not enter into any agreement called a "deferred prosecution agreement" nor even words to that effect. This statement is false and defamatory and damaging to my professional reputation......I never entered a deferred prosecution agreement with the government. This statement is defamatory and causing me real, financial harm which is calculable.

-Dean Boland, October 2015.

On the criminal side, the government alleged that Boland's conduct violated federal criminal child pornography laws, leading to a deferred prosecution agreement with him......In his deferred prosecution agreement, he suggested as much, stipulating that he "downloaded at least four... images, from the Internet, depicting four... real, identifiable minors in innocent poses," and then "digitally manipulated such images... to appear that each of the... minors was engaged in sexually explicit conduct." R.73-1 at 10. In his apology, he added, "I do recognize that such images violate federal law." Id. at 12.

-Doe v. Boland, 630 F.3d 491 (6th Cir. 2011).

Dean Boland's denial that he entered into the deferred prosecution agreement quoted by the Sixth Circuit was in the context of a demand that Scott Greenfield revise or remove this sympathetic post. Scott had, when Boland approached him before, expressed a willingness to remove the post if it would do him any good:

I responded to Boland by telling him that if he was able to persuade the others to take their posts down, I would remove mine. If not, then there was nothing to be gained.

That was a wholly unnecessary kindness on Scott's part, which Dean Boland must have interpreted as weakness, because his next move was to lie to and threaten him. Like Scott, I had some sympathy for Boland when he got dinged for trying to concretize a legal point. But whatever consideration he might have had, he threw that away. And in doing so he might just have made things worse.