Day Two: Charges Against Strom Dismissed

A federal judge in Charlottesville, Va., yesterday dismissed charges of sexually enticing a 10-year-old girl and intimidating a witness against neo-Nazi leader Kevin Alfred Strom, ending the case. The move came during the second day of Strom’s trial, after the prosecution rested its case against the founder of National Vanguard, who took a "leave of absence" as leader after the charges were brought last year. Prosecutors had detailed how Strom, 50, sent the child gifts, drove by her house and school, and wrote in his computer about how he wanted to marry the girl. But a day earlier, U.S. District Judge Norman Moon, hearing accounts of Strom’s wife discovering him naked, sexually aroused, and staring at computer images of young girls’ faces with older women’s naked bodies superimposed, sounded skeptical. Moon pointed out that the images were not illegal and added, “It’s not illegal to sit there naked.” Strom still faces a January federal trial for possession of child pornography.