A convicted sex offender in Grand Rapids has a very peculiar defense: He’s not a convicted sex offender in Grand Rapids.
He can’t be, you see, because elementary schoolchildren can’t be convicted of his crimes. And he’s not even a He.
As per WZZM13, Joseph Gobrick was sentenced to at least a decade behind bars after investigators found illegal images on his computer. The photos depicted children under 5 — and as young as infancy — being sexually assaulted.
The pictures were discovered in 2018 after a 17-year-old who’d been reported missing was found at Joseph’s home.
During his trial in November, he made an interesting call: The 45-year-old fired his court-appointed lawyer and told the judge he didn’t download “real child pornography.”
Furthermore:
“I did not have sex with children to create child pornography. We made those ourselves using GIMP, the GNU image-manipulating program.”
According to Joseph, the images were protected by the First Amendment.
Yet — horribly — from ABC13:
[P]olice said eight child victims were identified in the pornography recovered from Gobrick’s computer.
As for his defense, here’s the corker…at his sentencing, Joseph dropped a bomb.
The court was given a revelation:
“I’ve always been an 8-year-old girl. And even my drawings and fantasies, I am always an 8-year-old girl.’’
Makes quite the difference.
Still, as stated by Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Daniel Helmer, that girl is dangerous:
“[He’s] a danger to the public. … Even during the trial, the defendant continued to draw, talking about raping babies in the Kent County Jail and making other statements about how this is his constitutional right to continue to do so.”
Joseph told the judge, “I would no sooner have sex with a child than you would with a rattlesnake. It’s just not safe.’’
But Judge Paul Denenfeld didn’t buy it.
He sentenced Joseph as an adult — and a man.
“This isn’t just virtual stuff,” Paul said. “This is also real people being harmed.’’
The ponytailed transgender transager compared himself to the Jews:
“Under the law, Auschwitz was legal. What you’re doing here is wrong, just as Auschwitz was.’’
He’ll have plenty of time to rethink that comment in prison.
Although, time away didn’t appear to do him much good last time: In 2001, he was convicted of sexual abuse.
Let’s hope this time around provides clarity — enough to keep the children of Michigan safe.
-ALEX
Relevant RedState links in this article:
Texas Homeowner is Faced with an Armed Robber, Takes the Crook’s Gun Away and Shoots Him with It
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