How many times have you, or your wife, taken photos of your kids playing in their bath? How often have you snapped a quick photo of your wife, or your husband, toweling off your children, or maybe showing the babies giggling while lying naked on the bathroom floor?

Well, if you’ve taken any of those pictures recently, don’t send them off to Wal-Mart to be developed. You might find yourself being labeled a child pornographer, your home ransacked by police, your name placed on a sex offender registry. You might lose your job. You might even lose your kids to foster care.

That’s what happened to A.J. and Lisa Demaree, a married couple from Peoria, Ariz. According to a story on the ABC News Web site, the Demarees sent a batch of 144 family photos to their local Wal-Mart to be developed. Eight of the photos were of their young daughters — at the time ages 18 months, 4 and 5 years old — playing in their bath, being toweled off, and lying naked and giggling on the bathroom floor. A Wal-Mart photo developer decided that those photos were pornographic and sent them to the police.

The couple’s lawyer told “Good Morning America” that a report issued by local authorities described the photos as “child erotica” and “sex exploitation.” He said the person responsible for the report was unqualified to make such judgments.

It took a year for the Demarees to get the matter straightened out — a judge threw the charges out of court — and it cost them $75,000 in legal bills. Now the Demarees are suing the city and the state for mislabeling them as child pornographers, and Wal-Mart for failing to tell them that the company had an “unsuitable print policy” and could turn over photos to law enforcement without their knowledge.

“I don’t understand it at all,” A.J. Demaree told “Good Morning America” Monday. “Ninety-nine percent of the families in America have these exact same photos.”

Wal-Mart defended its actions in a statement: “At Wal-Mart we’re committed to providing quality service and convenience to our photo customers. These are sensitive allegations and we’re taking them very seriously.”

Police and prosecutors also insist they did what they thought was appropriate.  “Perversion,” said the couple’s lawyer, “is in the eye of the viewer.”

What right did the authorities have to invade this couple’s home, confiscate their videos and computers, and put their children into foster care? It seems almost like a totalitarian society. Then again, why didn’t the Demarees use a digital camera? Then there would have been no incident, no investigation, no charges and no public furor over pictures that were never supposed to have been seen in public, anyway.

PAUL SAMUEL, Associate Editor

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, no corned beef for anybody.

Last week, I wrote a new restaurant replacing the Court Towers Deli across from Circuit Court in Towson had pushed back its opening one week, to Sept. 21.

Alas, it was not meant to be, as the Perring Place Express Deli is still not open. Walking past the deli the last two days, I’ve noticed a fridge fully stocked with Red Bull and a new soda dispenser. But the tables remain pushed in one corner and the space remains mostly dark as work continues inside.

Unlike last week, there is no sign on the front door now announcing a new opening date. Stay tuned.