On a day when Canyon County Prosecutor John Bujak announced that his office had taken over the contract to provide "prosecutor services" to the City of Nampa, his office also announced that it had charged a 15 year-old girl with tricking another girl into sending her a nude photo, which she then distributed to other students at her high school.  The un-named juvenile is now in detention and faces a possible maximum 90 day sentence in a juvenile detention facility as a result of her "sexting." For those of us not hip enough to get that term – it has come to describe sending sexual pictures over cell phones – as in "texting."  Most kids caught with sexually explicit pics on their phones get into a diversion program (not a criminal case) – but this case involved a girl who tricked another girl into sending her the nude picture, for the purpose of sending it on to others.  It was that intent to injure and embarrass the sender that led to the charges.

So did the Canyon County Prosecutor get this one right?  Seems like it to me.  Kids do all kinds of stupid stuff that has to be illegal based on some state, federal or municipal law or ordinance – but this one is kind of a no-brainer.  If you trick someone into an embarrassing situation involving nude photos, you can’t be heard to complain that it isn’t fair. The real danger here is the feds – if they suddenly decided to charge kids for distributing child pornography (if the nude kid is underage) there would be huge problems for that kid. Not suggesting that will happen – the feds are (at least in Idaho) usually thoughtful about such charges.  Sounds like John Bujak was this time too.  

So John – what about that other kid?  The 14 year-old kid still locked away and charged with first degree murder?  The kid you initially locked up as an adult in an adult jail.  The baby-faced kid who, it seems, was likely just trying to defend himself and his siblings from a man who had molested him.

What about Zachary Neagle? 

And why is a Republican "less government" guy EXPANDING his domain to include providing prosecutors for Nampa?  Sounds like you already have a full time gig.  Why add to your responsibilities?  What is in it for the people of Canyon County who elected you to be their FULL TIME prosecutor? After all – you are now responsible for the lawyers who prosecute the Nampa City cases too.