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A Halifax man who spent 18 months in prison for child luring and possession of child pornography after an investigation mix-up between two nearly identical Internet usernames has been acquitted of all charges on appeal.
The error that led to Brandon Kleim’s conviction came down to the difference between one underscore (a keyboard character used in email addresses or usernames to indicate a space) and two, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court said in a decision released Thursday.
“Had the correct username been used at the outset of the investigation, subsequent steps in the investigation would not have led to Mr. Kleim,” the three-member appeals panel wrote.
Halifax Regional Police arrested Clym in February 2020 in connection with a Wisconsin police investigation into sexual conversations, video calls and the exchange of intimate images between a 12-year-old girl and a man on the messaging platform Kik.
Case with two usernames
The man used the username fus__ro_dah with two underscores between “fus” and “ro,” the decision said.
But when US authorities tried to trace the email and IP addresses associated with the man’s account, they mistakenly obtained information belonging to Claim, who had an almost indistinguishable username except for one key detail: fus_ro_dah, with a single underscore between “fus” and “ro”.
Although the girl described to police the physical characteristics of the man she was interacting with, court documents say investigators were unable to interview her in detail because she was receiving medical treatment for severe depression.
“Wisconsin Police have identified Mr. Claim as the perpetrator who used the wrong username. His conviction is based on the Internet username attributed to him,” the appeals panel wrote.
Kleime was found guilty of child luring, providing sexually explicit content to minors and possession of child pornography following an April 2023 trial in Dartmouth provincial court. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by 18 months probation.
A subtle mistake that changed the course of my life– Brandon Kleim
The appeals court ruling said there was no evidence linking Clyme to the girl, Kik conversations or intimate images.
It wasn’t until earlier this year that Kleim’s legal team discovered the discrepancy in the username.
Clime denied “any involvement”
“We noticed a problem when we were working on appeal arguments this spring,” Claim’s lawyer Zeb Brown wrote in an email to CBC News.
“We were trying to figure out why the digital forensic evidence pointed to him, given his denial of any involvement.”
In an affidavit submitted on appeal, Claim said the Wisconsin police subpoena “contained a subtle error that changed the course of my life.”
In addition to the acquittal on the charges, the conviction and additional orders against Klaime were overturned.
“This is not a situation where a verdict of acquittal is returned because the Crown failed to prove the essential elements of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt or an error during the trial rendered the verdict unsafe,” the appellate panel wrote.
“Under these circumstances, Mr. Kleime is effectively innocent of the crimes. He should never have been charged, let alone convicted.”
The correct username would likely identify someone in California, according to the decision.
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