Photog escapes SO registration after sexual assault of client

A photographer facing 3.5 years at his sentencing for his sexual assault (only a misdemeanor in this case!) will not be required to register as a sex offender.

The North County Times straightforwardly titled story, Photographer will not have to register as sex offender, has more details:

James Wood, 55, was convicted last year of misdemeanor sexual battery and a felony charge of dissuading a witness and faces up to three years and six months in state prison.
Wood's new attorney, Allen Bloom, told Judge Michael Smyth today that he plans to file a motion for a new trial in the case. If the motion is denied, sentencing is expected to go forward on April 18.

The woman, then 24, took the photos for a calender she wanted to share with her boyfriend. She met Wood on San Diego's Craigslist. The background below is from FOX 6 News San Diego.

Prosecutors Lose Bid To Force Photographer to Register As Sex Offender

During the time after the alleged assault last Oct. 29, Bloom said, the victim made at least 15 changes into explicit and flirtatious outfits. The then-24-year-old woman testified at the defendant's trial that she responded to an advertisement Wood posted on Craigslist, offering free provocative calendar shoots for uninhibited models.

She said Wood was initially helpful as the shoot began and told her to imagine she was a stripper as she posed for her pictorial. At one point, Wood asked, "Is the photographer going to get some of that?" according to the woman. She said she didn't know if Wood was serious and told him she was just there for the photo shoot. As she was posing on a couch, Wood bent down and sexually assaulted the woman for 20 to 30 seconds, but she didn't react and he stopped, she testified. "I froze. I was shocked," she testified. "Obviously he wasn't the person I thought I knew."

The woman, according to her testimony, stayed because she was scared, but once she got to her car, the victim caller her sister and her boyfriend, who convinced her to call the police.

She said Wood offered sex for photos as she left his home. "I said, `Wow, you're pretty nonchalant about this,"' she testified. Wood's trial attorney, Brian White, told the jury that the sexual encounter between the two was consensual. The case was a classic example of "He said, she said," White told jurors.

The attorney said Wood told the woman in a recorded call set up by police that she consented to the sexual encounter because she was masturbating during the photo shoot. But the woman denied the accusation. According to court testimony, Wood threatened legal action and later sent the victim an e-mail telling her she participated willingly and told her it was a crime to file a false police report.

The victim said she came forward so this would not happen to another woman.