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False Kiddie Porn
February 17, 2011 permalink
Vuk and Verica Nastic, a Serbian couple living in California, lost their children Damjan and Nastasja for eight months after a computer repair tecnician found pictures of naked children. The most probable explanation is that one of the children was playing with a camera. The family has finallly been reunited. Below is an American news story and a Serbian blog entry (in English) with a picture of the family.
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Couple reunited with children
Serbian pair living in Stockton have child porn allegations dropped
STOCKTON - After more than eight months apart, a Serbian couple living and working in the United States has been reunited with their son and daughter. The parents, Stockton residents Vuk and Verica Nastic, were separated from their 5- and 8-year-old children after allegations of child pornography.
According to a radio station in Belgrade, Serbia, the case against the Nastics was dropped. Robert Himelblau, a spokesman for the county District Attorney's office, said his office reviewed the case and decided not to file charges.
The children have been separated from each other and from their parents since June, The Associated Press had reported.
Last July, an office technician at Vuk Nastic's Modesto office found digital photographs of naked children on a computer that Nastic gave him. The technician reported them to the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office, according to an Associated Press report in mid-January.
Nastic said at the time that the photographs were not of a sexual nature, and that some were taken by his son.
The children had been under the care of the county's Child Protective Services agency, according to Serbian officials.
Every case handled by San Joaquin County Child Welfare Services is confidential, Division Chief Bea Gomez said. "I can't confirm or deny we have a case," she said.
In general, foreign involvement in child-protection cases is not unheard of, interim Deputy Director of Child Welfare Services John Greco said last month in response to inquires of the case. "It isn't uncommon in our work to have interaction with international consulates," he said. "Different cases illicit different levels of response."
Vuk Nastic told a Belgrade radio station this week that the family needed some time to "collect their thoughts" after receiving the good news that the case had been dropped.
Serbia's Chicago-based Consul Desko Nikitovic said the outcome is a victory for justice and "a great success of the Serbian authorities" who came to the couple's assistance.
"Obviously, (Child Protective Services) has been under great pressure to admit they made a mistake, from our lawyers and the Serbian diplomacy headed by Consul (Desko) Nikitovic and others. I understood that (Interior Minister) Ivica Dacic was here and that he was promised things would be sorted out in the foreseeable future," Vuk Nastic said.
He also stated that he and his wife received an apology from a lawyer acting on behalf of the county, who said they "only a few days ago had a chance to review all 7,000 photos found on the laptop and other memory devices."
The photos, Nastic said, showed that only 20 were contentious as potentially sexually "indecent," but that others showed the children knew how to use the camera themselves.
He also said the children were "very happy, at the same time a little confused, and a little traumatized."
Nikitovic said a civil rights investigation by U.S. authorities has been requested.
Source: Stockton Record
Children with their parents again
Nastices might request compensation of up to 5 million Dollars from USA
Children of the Nastices have been returned to their parents. After eight months Damjan and Nastasja are playing with their old toys again and sleeping in their own beds. The parents, Vuk and Verica Nastic are more than happy, but still in shock. Although many are advising them to sue the USA for illegal taking of their children away from them, they are still not thinking about that. Lawyers estimate that the Nastices can get from three to five million Dollars in compensation.
‘To our surprise, the chief prosecutor of the Agency for protection of children said at the beginning of the trial that only three days ago they had seen all of our photographs and that the Agency wanted the children to be returned to their parents and that they were giving up all of the charges.
The judge said it was so shameful what he had just heard and had he only known earlier what he had just heard, he would have never ruled the children be taken away from the parents. The prosecutor also addressed us at the end and said with some cynicism ‘to have seen the things in real light only three days ago’. I only said to be sorry that they had not seen them eight months ago’, Vuk Nastic told ‘Blic’ in a telephone statement.
Source: Serbian blog
