Are parents west of Worcester more likely to let teen girls enjoy nudie pics of 50-year-old men?

The Supreme Judicial Court today overturned the conviction of a South Hadley man for sending naked pictures of himself to somebody he thought was a 15-year-old girl at the other end of the state because of the chance that community standards on whether that's acceptable might differ between western and eastern Massachusetts.

The court did not take a position on whether standards might, in fact, be different in Hampshire County, where Gregory Kereakoglow lives, or in Essex County, where a Wenham police officer posed as a 15-year-old girl online.

However, because the judge in the case had ruled the pictures were not legally obscene, prosecutors needed to make their case to the jury under another theory, that the images were "patently contrary to prevailing standards of adults in the county where the offense was committed as to suitable material for such minors."

The SJC ruled that the offense was committed in Hampshire County and that the Essex County prosecutors introduced no evidence as to the offensiveness of such images in South Hadley and surrounding communities.

Complete ruling.