NC Photographer, Registered Sex Offender, Arrested After School Assignment
BURLINGTON, NC (April 28, 2009) – A news photographer on assignment at a middle school while working for the Burlington (NC) Times-News was arrested last week after a teacher allegedly recognized him from an online sex offender registry and the school system filed a complaint.
Peter Schumacher, 46, who has worked as a photographer for the Times-News since 2001, waived his first appearance in Alamance County District Court yesterday and instead was represented by his lawyer, the Times-News reports today.
Schumacher pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent liberties with a minor in March 2003, his newspaper said, and he was sentenced to 60 months of supervised probation, which ended in June 2007.
According to their Web site, Schumacher is the vice president of the North Carolina Press Photographers Association.
North Carolina state law says that registered sex offenders are not allowed to get within 300 feet of any location "intended primarily for the use, care, or supervision of minors."
Times-News publisher Paul Mauney said in today's paper that Schumacher, the paper's chief photographer, was placed on administrative leave Friday after the arrest. The photographer's conviction in 2003 stemmed from a 2002 incident, all of which took place while he worked for the newspaper.
According to the Times-News, in June 2006 a judge modified Schumacher's probation so that the photographer could go on school property in order to do his job as a photographer, defense lawyer Rick Champion told the paper.
Schumacher's lawyer told the judge his client was taking pictures of an adult who was making a presentation to children, as assigned, and nothing more. "They make it sound like he was taking pictures with some lewd and lascivious purpose," Champion said in court.
In December 2008, North Carolina increased the restrictions on convicted sex offenders prohibiting them from going near places "primarily intended for minors," and according to an investigator for the Alamance County Sheriff's Department who was in court on Monday the photographer was informed of the increased restrictions, and was given paperwork that explained the increased restrictions, and signed a document indicating he was aware of the changes.
Sheriff's Department investigator Bobby Baldwin said, "He [Schumacher] was not permitted to go anywhere school children are," the Times-News reported.
The photographer's lawyer sees the incident as a conflict between a judge's order that allowed Schumacher to go on school property in performance of his job when his probation was modified, and a state law that came into play in December.
"Whether or not that court order trumps the statute is up to a jury to decide," defense lawyer Champion told television news reporters outside the court.
"If the judge told him he could do something, he thought he could do it," Champion said.
Schumacher was released from jail after posting bond on Friday night, the Times-News says, and his next court date is May 18.
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