In
his private journal, Jason Michael Handy once described himself as a
"pedophile, full blown." His job as a production assistant at one of the
nation's most prominent producers of children's television programs,
Nickelodeon, gave him access to child actors on and off the set, and
allowed him to exchange email addresses and phone numbers with them. He
used the hopes of at least two girls who dreamed of careers in TV to
sexually exploit them. Handy was sentenced to six years in prison after
pleading no contest in 2004 to two felony counts, one of lewd acts on a
child and one of distributing sexually explicit material by email, and
to a misdemeanor charge related to child sexual exploitation.
His arrest
and prosecution received scant media attention at the time but are
attracting renewed interest now, after the recent arrest of a talent
manager on molestation charges and reports by The Times that a registered sex offender was working with children as a casting associate.
The Handy case, which in part prompted Nickelodeon to toughen its background checks for all employees, is among at least a dozen child molestation and child pornography prosecutions since 2000 involving actors, managers, production assistants and others in the industry, according to court documents and published accounts.
The Handy case, which in part prompted Nickelodeon to toughen its background checks for all employees, is among at least a dozen child molestation and child pornography prosecutions since 2000 involving actors, managers, production assistants and others in the industry, according to court documents and published accounts.
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