SPRINGFIELD - Jeffrey Shoemaker soon could be a free man. He was convicted a year ago of creating child pornography. An appellate court ruled Friday there was no evidence the photos he took actually were lewd, his attorney said.

"None met the legal description for what 'lewd' means under Illinois law," said Shoemaker's attorney, Steve Skelton.

The Fourth District Appellate Court decision reversed the conviction, rather than sending it back for retrial, Skelton said. In layman's terms, the decision is an acquittal for his client, he said.

Prosecutors with the McLean County state's attorney's office could not be reached for comment.

Jeff Shoemaker

Shoemaker, the former manager of the Children's Discovery Museum store, was accused of taking photos of five nude, underage boys during a birthday party at his Gridley home in March 2006. His defense maintained the photo depictions were consistent with "locker room behavior, inappropriate horseplay and goofing around."

Shoemaker testified he didn't think the pictures were lewd, though they were inappropriate. During the hearing in August at which he was sentenced to four years in prison, he said he regretted his lapse in judgment.

In the appellate court ruling, the judges' opinion was that the photos were not inherently lewd, and a prosecutor's stipulation that the children acted without direction in "an uninhibited moment of spontaneity" was fatal to the state's case.

"The photos here appear to be examples of nudity without lewdness and not child pornography," the appellate court ruling says.

But the decision later says Shoemaker "exhibited a complete lack of … judgment and a careless disregard for the blissful innocence" of the boys.

Prosecutors can still file for another hearing before the appellate court or petition the Illinois Supreme Court for a reversal of the appellate court decision, Skelton said. He plans to file a request for a bond amount so his client can be released from prison pending the state's decision what to do with the case.

Skelton said that if Shoemaker doesn't receive a bond amount, he could sit in prison for another two months despite having a good chance for an acquittal. He said that would be a "gross injustice."