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Larry Brinkin, convicted of felony child pornography possession
on Jan. 21, had served on the San Francisco Human Rights
Commission for 22 years. (AP)

WARNING: Some of the language in this story is graphic and
disturbing.

(CNSNews.com) – Larry Brinkin, who worked at the Human Rights
Commission for the City of San Francisco for 22 years and was a
prominent homosexual rights activist for more than 40 years,
pleaded guilty to felony child pornography possession last week.

Brinkin is expected to serve six months in jail, five years of
probation, and register as a sex offender for the rest of his
life when he is sentenced on Mar. 5. But he likely will get to
keep his city pension because possessing and viewing child porn
apparently is not considered a crime of “moral turpitude” under
San Francisco’s retirement/pension rules.

According to police, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle
and SF Weekly, Brinkin had photographic images of children
between the ages of 1 and 3 who were being sodomized and forced
to perform oral sex on adult men.

Also, in e-mails attributed to Brinkin using the account
“Zack3737@aol.com,” he praised interracial adult-child sex
saying, in one message, “I loved especially the [N-word] 2 year
old getting nailed. Hope you’ll continue so I can see what the
little blond bitch is going to get. White Power! White
Supremacy! White D--- Rules!”


(AP Image)
Brinkin, who is “married” to partner Wood Massi and has a son
with two mothers, retired from the city’s Human Rights
Commission in 2010, when he was 64 years old. At the time and
with the support of city official Bevan Dufty, the San Francisco
Board of Supervisors, in honor of Brinkin’s work over the years
to combat discrimination, passed a resolution declaring the
first seven days of February 2010 “Larry Brinkin Week.”

While on the Human Rights Commission, Brinkin had worked as a
compliance officer, responsible for helping to ensure non-
discrimination against employees. He had been instrumental, back
in 1982, in implementing San Francisco’s Equal Benefits
Ordinance, which required employers to provide equal coverage
for “domestic partners.” Further, Brinkin has been a long-time
advocate for gay “marriage.”

The archived pages of SF Pride say of Brinkin, "Larry Brinkin
has been an activist in San Francisco for over 35 years, co-
founding Bay Area Gay Liberation, the Lesbian/Gay Labor
Alliance, and the Gay & Lesbian Alternative Dispute Resolution
Service. He was a pioneer in the struggle for domestic partner
benefits and currently is the manager of the LGBT&HIV Division
of the SF Human Rights Commission. He played a major role in
recent years in the struggle for transgender rights."

Brinkin was first arrested in the child pornography
investigation in June 2012. According to the news reports, in
early 2012 America Online (AOL) had contacted authorities after
discovering e-mails and child pornographic images in one of the
company’s subscriber accounts.

The Los Angeles Police Department, then put in charge of the
case, traced the IP address of the e-mail account
Zack3737@aol.com to Larry Brinkin. Police then confirmed that
Brinkin had paid for the e-mail service with his credit card.

ABC News 7 (KGO-TV San Francisco) report on Brinkin's initial
arrest in June 2012:

At that point, the San Francisco Police Department was informed
of the case and carried on the investigation.

As the San Francisco Chronicle reported in June 2012, “Police
say that Brinkin had pornographic images, some that appear to
show children as young as 1 and 2 or 3 years old being sodomized
and performing oral sex on adult men, in e-mail attachments
linked to his account, according to a search warrant served by
San Francisco police.”


City of San Francisco official Bevan Dufty, who helped sponsor
the resolution declaring Feb. 1-7, 2010, "Larry Brinkin Week."
“Police provided two examples of e-mail messages from last year
in which Zack3737 provides disturbing descriptions of the
exploitative sexual acts,” reported The Chronicle. “The e-mail
account also is linked to Yahoo discussion groups on sexual
exploitation of young boys and girls, according to the search
warrant.”

“Investigators say they additionally found e-mails sent from
Brinkin’s now-defunct city e-mail account to Zack373@aol.com,”
reported SF Weekly.

Later, on Sept. 26, 2012, San Francisco District Attorney George
Gascon officially charged Brinkin “with 2 counts of distributing
child pornography and 4 counts of possessing child pornography,”
reads a press release. “The defendant allegedly received and
sent emails containing pornographic images of children.”

The district attorney’s press release further says,
“Investigators determined the defendant received e-mails and
sent two reply emails containing the child pornography. On June
22, the San Francisco Police Department seized computers
belonging to the defendant containing dozens of images of child
pornography.”

Like the e-mail already mentioned, the Bay Area Reporter noted
that police cited in court records another e-mail comment about
a child porn image where Brinkin boasted about a 2-to-3-year-old
caucasian child being sodomized by a black adult male.

After Brinkin's initial arrest, Theresa Sparks, executive
director of San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission, told the
media, “It’s almost incredulous, there’s no way I could believe
such a thing. He’s always been one of my heroes, and he’s the
epitome of human rights activist – this is the man who coined
phrases we use in our daily language. I support Larry 100%.
Hopefully, it will all come out in the investigation.”


(AP Photo)
Bevan Dufty, who served on the San Francisco Board of
Supervisors and now is director of Housing Opportunity,
Partnerships and Engagement in the mayor’s office, following
Brinkin’s arrest said, “I have admired and respected his work
for the LGBT community. I respect and am confident that there
will be due process.”

Several e-mail and telephone inquiries from CNSNews.com to
Dufty, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, the San Francisco
Human Rights Commission (HRC), and its media relations contact,
David Miree, for comment on Larry Brinkin’s guilty plea were not
answered before this story was posted.

HRC Executive Director Theresa Sparks did speak with the Bay
Area Reporter, however, saying, “Overall, I have no comment,
obviously, professionally. But personally I think it’s just a
very, very sad commentary, a very sad situation. I’m heartbroken
it happened.”

Brinkin had worked at the Human Rights Commission for 22 years
and retired in 2010, when he was making a salary of $135,000,
according to SF Weekly.

Concerning whether Brinkin will retain his city pension, his
attorney Randall Knox said he did not think the felony child
porn possession conviction was relevant because it apparently
does not fall under “moral turpitude,” as explained in the city
rule Proposition C.

“This is not a moral turpitude crime,” Knox told the Bay Area
Reporter, and it is “not something that happened when he was
working for the city.”


Theresa Sparks, executive director of the San Francisco Human
Rights Commission. (Photo: CAHRO)
Under that law, approved in 2008, a city employee who commits a
crime involving “moral turpitude” cannot collect retirement
benefits from the city.

In a June 2008 voter guide released by SPUR, a non-profit group
that focuses on urban policy in San Francisco, it explains
Proposition C- Moral Turpitude as follows, “As applied to crimes
that might be committed in connection with employment with the
City, moral turpitude often involves some kind of theft of
public property, including materials and services.

“Proposition C is an amendment to the San Francisco City Charter
that would prevent retired City employees who are convicted of
crimes of moral turpitude from receiving the City-funded portion
of their pension, if the crimes were committed ‘in connection
with their employment.’”

Brinkin pleaded guilty in his plea deal on Jan. 21. He is
scheduled to be sentenced on Mar. 5. The plea deal reduced the
six felony child pornography charges to one felony count of
possessing child porn.

In addition to the six months’ incarceration, home detention,
probation, and registering as a sex offender for life, Brinkin
will also have to undergo sex offender therapy, “and is banned
from working with kids, contacting a juvenile without parental
consent, and living with someone responsible for a child without
disclosing his offender status,” reported the San Francisco
Chronicle.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/michael-w-chapman/san-francisco- s-gay-icon-larry-brinkin-guilty-felony-child-porn
 

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