NTFU website owner arrested

Chris Wilson, the Florida man who owns and runs the NTFU body-part pornsite, was arrested yesterday by the police in Polk County, Florida.
(That site was the one that posted grisly pictures of dead Iraqis and Afghans interspersed with links to other forms of photographic “trophies”, that is the sexual tropies of its numerous male participants… See how JWN helped break this story in late August, here.)
Wilson was charged with one count of wholesale distribution of obscene material and 300 misdemeanor counts related to 20 online films and 80 photographs obtained from his Web site. Bail was set at $151,000.
However, this Orlando Sentinel story revealed today that,

Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said late Friday that the 300 obscenity-related charges against Wilson all involve sexual content on his Web site — and not graphic war-scene images posted by soldiers.

Sentinel reporter Anthony Colarossi added that,

Judd said his obscenity charges have nothing to do with the Army’s interest in the case, and he maintained in a lengthy interview that he was not pressured to investigate Wilson.
“We unilaterally initiated the investigation without any support, help or encouragement from the federal government,” Judd said.
… Before Wilson’s arrest, Polk County Judge Angela Cowden found probable cause that the images and tapes were obscene, Judd said. The obscenity statute is one of the few in which a judge must make such a determination before an arrest is made. Investigators also obtained a search warrant and removed computers from Wilson’s home.
They will be looking for customer lists and other documents to assist the investigation. Information that Army investigators might need in their search will be made available, Judd said.
Though Wilson’s equipment was removed, his Web site remained in operation Friday because the servers used to run the site are overseas.
“It’s never our intent to put somebody out of business,” Judd said. “All we ask is that they obey the laws of Florida. We’ve been investigating vice and pornography long enough to know pretty much what crosses the line. This didn’t just cross the line. This left the line many miles behind.”

It should be an interesting case. When Chris Wilson came onto this JWN comments board back in August, he argued about the pictures of body-parts of dead Iraqis and Afghans on his site that:

I think everyone should see them. This is a side of the war that is shown from the soldiers THEMSELVES. Where else can you go see that? Right now all we see are pics from the media. I don’t like the media feeding me things, I want to see first hand what’s going on there.
No one making you look, if you don’t like it; don’t look. You know exactly what you are going to see when you go there. There are no tricks, it’s spelled out in plain english.

His lawyer was quoted as saying much the same thing in Colarossi’s story. (Hat-tip to JS who sent me the tip-off on the arrest story.)