Jury finds man not guilty of sending 'obscene' photos to juvenile

A jury in Highland County Common Pleas Court deliberated approximately half an hour Monday before returning a not guilty verdict for a Middletown man charged with disseminating matter harmful to a juvenile. 

Harold Birch had been indicted on the fifth-degree felony charge in March. The state alleged that on Dec. 12, 2010 he had sent six "obscene" photos of a former girlfriend to the woman's 17-year-old daughter. 

During his closing argument, defense attorney Conrad Curren said that there were three elements of the case that the jury must consider: if Birch did it, if the photos were obscene and if the juvenile received the photos in Highland County. 

The defense had alleged that the woman who was depicted in the photos had been the one who sent them from the defendant's phone. On the stand she denied that the photos were of her. However, the juvenile testified that the woman in the photos was her mother. 

Curren said that denying she was the woman in the photos "didn't hold water."

Highland County Prosecutor Anneka Collins said during her closing that the defendant admitted on the stand that he had taken photos of the woman without her knowledge. 

"If she had no knowledge of the photos, how could she have known to send them?" Collins asked the jury. 

The jury returned a verdict at approximately 2:20 p.m. 

"I am happy with the verdict," Curren said following the proceedings. "It is a just verdict.