Motive for 'heinous' brochure with teen photo still unclear

SALT LAKE CITY — A Salt Lake woman charged with doctoring an obscene photo to include the face of a 13-year-old girl and distributing the photos at the girl's middle school made her initial appearance in court Monday.

Attorneys for Danette Stark, 37, declined to say what may have motivated the woman to allegedly Photoshop the teen's face onto the body of a woman who was committing bestiality, citing the "embarrassment factor" of the allegations.

Stark was charged with 18 second-degree felony counts of sexual exploitation of a minor for allegedly creating the image and then making them into fliers that she left at the girl's middle school. In addition to the graphic image, the fliers also included derogatory words and statements directed toward the victim. Prosecutors cited producing, distributing or possessing child pornography as grounds for the sexual exploitation charges.

Stark said she found the photo on the Internet and made 30 copies, which she then placed in the girl's restroom and into a few students' lockers, according to the charges.

Attorney Steve Russell, who was standing in for Stark's attorney, confirmed Monday that Stark has a daughter at Northwest Middle School who is the same age as the victim. He did not explain the girls' relationship, saying only "I'm sure they know each other."

Russell said multiple times that there are "legal issues" with the case and that the defense plans to look into the definition of pornography.

Last week, Salt Lake County District Attorney Lohra Miller said the images constitute child pornography under state law. Miller also declined to talk about a motive in the case.

"It's irrelevant," said Miller, who noted she did not want to victimize the girl again. "The brochure is so heinous. You have enough to deal with as a 13-year-old girl, much less this type of conduct."

According to Utah law, any visual depiction, including computer-generated images, that "has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexually explicit conduct" qualifies as child pornography. The issue of whether photos showing the bodies of adults superimposed with the heads of children constitutes child pornography has been discussed in similar cases in other states.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled that convicting a man on charges of possessing child pornography for putting the head of teenage girls on those of adults was a violation of his First Amendment rights because he didn't distribute the photos and because they did not depict actual children engaging in sexual acts. However, the court noted that their ruling was "limited to the facts of this particular case."