Stevie Nicks' guitarist Waddy Wachtel allowed into NZ despite child porn conviction
 

Does anybody know about this???
Is it true??
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-ze...onviction.html
Questions are being raised after Fleetwood Mac frontwoman Stevie Nicks' guitarist was allowed entry into New Zealand and Australia despite historic child pornography offences.

Robert 'Waddy' Wachtel was arrested in 1998 on suspicion of possession of child pornography. He pleaded no contest to the charges and he was placed on probation for three years.

He is currently touring Australia as the lead guitarist for Ms Nicks' band. As a result, Australia's immigration minister has come under fire to explain why he was granted a visa.

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has defended its decision to allow Wachtel into New Zealand, where he will perform next week.

"Immigration New Zealand (INZ) can confirm that Waddy Wachtel has applied and been approved for a visitor visa to travel to New Zealand," says INZ area manager Marcelle Foley.

"In making this decision, INZ took into the account the short duration of his stay in New Zealand and that he had been forthright in his convictions.

"Taking into account all the circumstances and with a full understanding of the purpose of his visit, a visitor visa was approved."

Newshub.

?????? Wow!!!

yes, this happened a while back. I believe they searched if not outright seized his computer.

Jondalar, I just Found this. Los Angeles Times!
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/oct/16/local/me-33017

Guitarist Gets Probation in Child Pornography
October 16, 1998
Community News File / A summary of developments across
Los Angeles County | Courts and Government
Guitarist Robert "Waddy" Wachtel, who has worked with Linda Ronstadt and Fleetwood Mac, was placed on three years' probation Thursday after pleading no contest to possession of child pornography.

Wachtel was ordered to make a $2,500 donation to Children of the Night, an agency that helps runaways. In addition, he must undergo six months' counseling with a psychologist.

A similar charge against Wachtel's wife, Annie, was dismissed at the request of prosecutors.

The district attorney's office said the illicit material was discovered after Wachtel took his computer to a shop for repairs.

I recall it coming up in a Ledge Q&A, here is that link where someone asked Brett

http://www.fleetwoodmac.net/penguin/...tuggle_qa1.htm

That's really gross.
Disappointing.:distress:

I wonder why it's an issue now. Hasn't he been there with Stevie a few times since 1998?

I wonder what actually was found on his computer

I wonder why that is all the punishment he received.

Hate to say but he has always looked like a creeper.

I remember also hearing about this. For awhile he wasn't in Stevie's band and Carlos was lead guitar. I thought it was earlier than 1998 though. I do remember in an interview with Stevie during the other side of the mirror tour, she was asked why Waddy wasn't on the tour and Stevie said because he had just gotten married and needed time for himself. I always thought it was because of the allegations, but according to the timeline, maybe not.

There's the possibility that this may be all smoke and mirrors; currently in the western world there still isn't a universal agreement on what constitutes child pornography and what doesn't, and law (USA included) employs a very vague and general definition of "child pornography" that leaves too much room to interpretation and leaves many unsolved questions.
I don't want to turn this into a paper but the point is that Law states that any depiction of a minor's nudity or a minor in sexual situations can be considered child pornography and, while at first this seems perfectly agreeable, in reality the matter is more complicated and nuanced and problems arise in borderline cases like:
1) medical material that include images of undressed minors
2) artistic depictions of underage figures
3) fetishist pornographic material with young actors posing as minors e.g. "schoolgirl" or "milf with teenager" videos; (particularly debated because in the pornographic world often are illicitly employed real underage actors)
4) animated pornography depicting young-looking people aka the famous "lolita" trope (one of the most disputed because it doesn't involve real minors)
5) receiving sexual messages or videos by someone who is under the age of 18

Not fully knowing the circumastances it's hard to say, but since Waddy came out of it pretty easily it's likely that he may fall into one of the limit cases.

Even in 1998 child pornography was severely punished in both state and federal court. To receive probation says something about the image. Probation is not in a sentence guideline for a possession of child pornography conviction. So the image really must have been something the state felt they would have trouble getting a conviction and offered a deal of probation. This is speculation on my part because today if you would have one image of child pornography on your computer would put you away for 10 years easily. I have never heard of a charge or conviction of "suspicion of child pornography" Its like being pregnant, either you are or aren't. Are you in possession of child pornography or aren't you? What's with "suspicion"? This obviously was an extremely weak case. However this probably explains why Waddy was not on the Enchanted tour.

That’s very shortsighted.

the fact that whatever images there were got discovered when he took his computer in for repairs may have been enough of a loophole where he could say, it wasn't mine, it wasn't on there when I took it in, and how do you prove he's right or he's making it up? The possibility that someone else used the computer since it was out of his possession could be enough to cast 'reasonable doubt'.