A Milwaukee-area lawyer facing 10 felony counts of possessing virtual child pornography is perhaps one of the first Wisconsin cases to be prosecuted under a new law aimed at curbing trafficking and child abuse.
Trevor Leverson, 37, of Elm Grove, was arrested after an incident outside an Elm Grove business in June, but wasn't formally charged with felonies until Aug. 27.
The charges came after detectives found AI-generated images of young children engaged in sex acts or poses on his cellphone, according to the criminal complaint.
Court records show Leverson also is charged with disorderly conduct.
It was June 18 when Elm Grove police arrested a man outside a local butcher shop. Officers had gotten statements from multiple witnesses that a man was seen masturbating in a vehicle in the parking lot, according to a criminal complaint made public in Waukesha County on Aug. 27.
The man's cellphone was seized, and authorities later obtained a search warrant to go through it.
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On July 1, the device turned up seven images of what investigators described in the complaint as "depictions of virtual child pornography."
Results of an expanded search of the phone, on Aug. 18, turned up AI-generated images, including those depicting "young children involved in sex acts or sexually explicit and erotic poses," the complaint says.
Detectives believe some of the images were screenshots from a mobile AI tool.
Wisconsin recently adopted a ban that expanded the definition of child pornography to include digital or computer-generated images "that contain a visual representation that appears to depict a child engaged in sexually explicit conduct," even if it the child isn't real.
The ban went into effect March 29, 2024.
Attorney Anthony Cotton, who is representing Leverson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said he plans to challenge the law, even as far as the supreme court, if need be.
He argued his client shouldn't be prosecuted for a crime that was generated by an AI program.
"It's unconstitutional," said Cotton, of Waukesha. "There's no victim here."
Leverson appeared before a court commissioner Aug. 27 and posted a $10,000 bond.
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Leverson's LinkedIn account shows he had been an attorney for the Milwaukee law offices of Halling & Cayo since October 2011. His image still appeared on the firm's website on Aug. 28, but resulted in a "404" error when you clicked on his biography page.
A message to a spokeswoman for the law firm was not immediately returned.
Leverson is due back in court Sept. 22 for a preliminary hearing.
He pleaded not guilty to the disorderly conduct charge, a class B misdemeanor, during a July 31 court appearance and was ordered by the court to not have any contact with the butcher business.
Chris Ramirez covers courts for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He can be reached at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Lawyer arrested under Wisconsin law targeting AI-generated child porn
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