Former Philly cop acquitted of child-porn charges

A former Philadelphia police officer who was fired and arrested in 2017 after authorities found nude pictures and a sexually explicit video on his computer depicting girls between the ages of 10 to 14 was found not guilty Wednesday after a judge ruled that the prosecution failed to prove that the defendant had downloaded the child pornography.

Emmanuel Folly, 29, was cleared of two child-pornography charges despite evidence presented during the one-day non-jury trial and arguments from Assistant District Attorney Vilma Cubias that Folly’s laptop was password-protected. Police confiscated the machine from his bedroom.

“He’s the only one who had that password,” Cubias said in her closing argument, noting that Folly provided the password to investigators.

“This isn’t a situation, your honor, where ... drugs were found in the living room of the residence where three or four people lived. This is a situation that it’s a personal laptop,” she said.

Defense attorney Fortunato Perri Jr. countered that the issue was murkier than the prosecution maintained.

“Your honor, we live in an age where anybody can use someone’s computer,” Perri said. “I’m not challenging the fact that this computer is not a computer that was utilized by my client. The question becomes, did anybody else have access to this computer?”

Common Pleas Court Judge Charles Ehrlich said that prosecutors had not shown that Folly alone used the computer.

“I’ve considered the evidence in the case, and while it certainly points to the defendant, the question is, is it beyond a reasonable doubt that only the defendant used it?” asked Ehrlich.

Folly declined to comment about his acquittal or if he planned to seek his police job back. He was embraced after the verdict by friends and relatives, including his mother.

Folly, who had been with the department three years when he was fired in 2017, had been assigned to the 18th District in West Philadelphia. While on the force, he also had made a name for himself as a professional boxer. As a super bantamweight fighter, he had a record of 10-0 with eight knockouts, according to the Boxing Scene website.

Perri also said his client’s providing the password to detectives showed he had nothing to hide.

Prosecutor Cubias alleged that Folly deleted images before the search warrant was executed at his home in November 2016. His mistaken belief that he had deleted any incriminating evidence is why he turned over his password, she said.

Detective Joseph Jenkins, of the Police Department’s Special Victims Unit, testified that the department began investigating Folly after the police sex-crimes squad discovered that a computer traced to his home in the Tioga section was being used to download child porn through a peer-to-peer file-sharing network.

During the search of the house three computers were seized: one from the living room and two from Folly’s bedroom. Only one laptop from the bedroom contained child porn, Jenkins said.