State v. Reeves

Following a bench trial, defendant was convicted of 15 counts of encouraging child sexual abuse in the first degree, ORS 163.684,1 based on 15 still image and movie files recovered from his personal computer. The trial court rejected defendant’s arguments that all 15 counts should be merged into a single conviction; in doing so, the court apparently relied on the “sufficient pause” provision of ORS 161.067(3) and did not address the state’s contention that the “separate victims” provision of ORS 161.067(2) precluded merger because the children depicted in the images were “victims” of…