COLUMBUS — A social worker testified Friday that a man imprisoned for writing fantasies in his journal about torturing and molesting children could potentially act on those thoughts.

        Robin Aurnou was a witness for prosecutors who are arguing against allowing Brian Dalton to withdraw his guilty plea so he can fight the constitutionality of state law.

        Mr. Dalton, 22, pleaded guilty in July to pandering obscenity involving a minor, Ohio's child-pornography law.

        The case has alarmed lawyers specializing in First Amendment and obscenity law, who think Mr. Dalton is the first person in the United States successfully prosecuted for child pornography that involved writings, not images.

        Ms. Aurnou diagnosed Mr. Dalton as a pedophile in January 2000, when she worked at a treatment program that he was required to attend after a 1998 pandering conviction involving pornographic photographs of children.

        She testified that her diagnosis revealed a high risk that Mr. Dalton would act on his fantasies and that his private journals could trigger him to do so.

        She also said an increase in the frequency and severity of his fantasies written in this journal and a journal from several years ago makes it more likely that Mr. Dalton would act on them.

        Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Nodine Miller twice refused defense requests to strike Ms. Aurnou's testimony. Mr. Dalton's attorneys said the testimony had nothing to do with their argument that his plea and 10-year sentence should be thrown out because of ineffective counsel from his former attorney Isabella Dixon.

        “Her testimony in no way deals with the failures of Ms. Dixon,” said Benson Wolman, the lead attorney on Mr. Dalton's defense team, made up of lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union.

        They have asked Judge Miller to reconsider her refusal to allow Mr. Dalton to withdraw his plea. Judge Miller did not say when she will rule.

        Scott Forehand, an assistant prosecutor, said the social worker's testimony was relevant because of the defense's underlying reason for wanting to withdraw the guilty plea — to fight the constitutionality of the child pornography law.

        “This witness showed that these materials would be made much more dangerous in his hands, and that would make them (the written words) fall under the law,” Mr. Forehand said.

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