High court rejects pornographer's appeal

A Fallon man serving prison time for using underage girls to produce pornography lost his appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Ronald Alex Stevenson, 38, argued that his conviction should be overturned on the grounds that state law is vague when defining a minor, and his conduct was legal when he photographed teen girls in suggestive poses.

The Supreme Court ruled the argument was without merit because another state law clearly states that a minor is anyone under the age of 18.

Two of Stevenson's victims were 16 in 2001 when the photographs were taken. Another was 15 years old.

Stevenson pleaded guilty to three counts of using a minor to produce pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He originally faced 73 counts of child pornography after thousands of lewd images were found on his home computer and compact discs.

He is serving three consecutive sentences of 60 to 155 years in prison for producing the photos and 12 to 36 months for possessing them. Stevenson is being held in medium custody at the Lovelock Correctional Center.

He had been a sailor for 18 years in the Navy when he was arrested. He lost his military career, and his family split up after he was charged with the crimes, according to court documents.

In his appeal, Stevenson also tried to convince the high court that the photos he took of girls did not contain "sexual portrayals" as defined by law.

Photos collected as evidence show the teens dressed as young schoolgirls. Some of the images focused on the feet and socks. Police investigator John Rowe testified at a preliminary hearing that Stevenson admitted to having a foot and stocking fetish and liked girls wearing parochial school uniforms.

In their ruling, Supreme Court justices state Stevenson did not supply the photos at issue in the case, making it impossible to determine if they met the definition of sexual portrayal or not.

In the final claim tossed out by the court, Stevenson argued the district court should have approved a request for $5,000 to hire an expert to examine files on his computer.

"Stevenson claims that the photographs used in support of the state's charges against him were recovered by the FBI from deleted files," the order states.

Justices ruled district court judges have discretion when spending money to hire experts.

Deputy District Attorney Russell Smith said earlier the FBI found about 37,000 pornographic photos of adults and older teens on Stevenson's computer or on discs. Smith said about 30 images showed children, some as young as 4 or 5 years.

Marlene Garcia can be contacted at mgarcia@lahontanvalleynews.com.