Story time - I knew someone who got railroaded and in trouble for something like this and all of us who knew him knew that it was a case of a prosecutor wanting a Win even if the guy really may not have done it. Dude could be a lot of things (including an asshole who'd offer to help you look for your wallet all while it's in HIS pocket) but he wasn't a pedo by any means.

So dude was a software engineer but also an addict and ended up getting busted for computer fraud. He always had tons of computers, laptops, and random hardware and the cops found illegal porn on one of the old computers. Some of the computers were his, some were gotten via drug deals (he knew other junkies who'd trade nice laptops or Playstations etc for some dope), some were goodwill junk used for spare parts.

He was offered a plea deal - there was no proof that he was the one who actually downloaded the shit but that computer was on his property so if he pled guilty to the fraud AND to being in possession of the cp he'd do like 3 years or so in prison but have to be a sex offender afterwards. But if he didn't take the deal and took it to trial and lost they'd try to get him like 15 years in prison.

I talked to the guy a few years after all this happened. He ended up being let out after only 2 years for good behavior or whatever it's called. His probation required mandatory polygraph tests but he passed them all insisting he was a drug addicted computer hacker but wasn't guilty of a sex crime. They then sent him to psychological testing which alluded to the same thing - drug addict but does not align with any pedo characteristics. So ultimately he was let off probation years early.

There are laws in his state that could allow a judge to let him off the registration but this kind of case costs 10000$ or more. If the dude ever starts a gofundme for a lawyer I'll give him a hundred bucks towards it in a heart beat.