Charges dropped against Steve Giardini

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Child sex charges against a former Mobile County prosecutor were dropped in a local courthouse on Wednesday.

Former Assistant District Attorney Steve Giardini was accused of enticing a child for sex and soliciting child porn, but a judge tossed out the charges.

His defense attorney says Giardini is now a free man because of two key points:

1. he was being prosecuted under an old law and,
2. there was no actual child in this case; instead it was an undercover FBI agent.

State prosecutors said in 2008, Mobile County Prosecutor Steve Giardini chatted frequently online with someone he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

Giardini was a specialized child sex crime prosecutor who worked with the Child Advocacy Center in Mobile.

Authorities claimed Giardini enticed the girl for sex and requested a topless photo of her but this supposed 'girl' was actually an undercover FBI agent.

Giardini was charged but a jury could not reach a verdict in a 2011 case. And this week, a judge tossed out the charges.

Defense Attorney Dennis Knizley said, "There was no victim in this case, it was a FBI undercover agent that was trying to ensnare him into doing something and he never did anything."

There is a law that allows prosecution in cases where an agent poses as a girl online but that law was enacted after Giardini's alleged actions occurred.

The statute that prosecutors were instead using was written decades ago, and did not address internet solicitation.

Kinzley said, "[The prosecution] had no statute that fit the conduct because Steve did not do anything. He didn't go meet anybody or anything of that nature."

Knizley says even though prosecutors say Giardini requested a photo, it was never produced because the girl didn't exist.

So with all that information, the judge tossed out the charges.

"They tried to force his conduct into an antiquated statute that wasn't designed for that, and he was not guilty of it and the judge did the appropriate thing and followed the law and dismissed the case,” said Knizley.

We’ve reached out to the state prosecutor and have not received a response.

The Mobile County District Attorney's office will not comment on this case.

Knizley says Giardini's reputation is badly damaged, but now that he's a free man, hopefully he can pick up the pieces and go back to practicing law.