HOLLISTER
– A local man has hired an attorney and plans to sue a watchdog
Internet organization after the group accused him of soliciting sex
with an underage girl over the Web, and sent flyers to his
neighborhood claiming he was a pedophile.
HOLLISTER – A local man has hired an attorney and plans to sue a watchdog Internet organization after the group accused him of soliciting sex with an underage girl over the Web, and sent flyers to his neighborhood claiming he was a pedophile.
Perverted-Justice.com, a volunteer organization that surfs the Web attempting to expose possible pedophiles, posted a conversation from a Yahoo chat room of a person they said is a Hollister resident communicating sexually explicit comments and sending lewd photos of himself to a volunteer posing as a 13-year-old girl.
The chat occurred in May and later was posted on the group’s Web site.
The man obtained Oakland-based attorney Dennis Roberts more than a week ago. He said his client is innocent and plans to sue the organization.
“It’s a damn outrage – the most outrageous thing I’ve heard in a long time,” Roberts said. “This is not the police – it’s a group of ‘well-meaning’ people who march to their own drum and think it’s a good thing to destroy people’s lives. It’s vigilante justice, and I hope they have a lot of money.”
The Dispatch is not naming the man because no charges have been filed.
The Hollister Police Department does not plan to make an arrest or investigate the matter at this time, according to Detective Tony Lamonica.
When Perverted-Justice.com posted the information on the site and volunteers sent out flyers, it ruined any possibility of setting up a ”sting” to catch the man in the act and prove it was him sending the pornographic correspondence, Lamonica said.
“I’m not saying it’s not him, but there’s no way to prove it is,” Lamonica said. “There’s no leads to go on, and now he’s going to be real careful. They should have contacted local law enforcement, talked to me and then we could do a sting – that’s the right way to do it.”
Roberts believes if the group’s intentions were to actually apprehend the man instead of humiliating him, they would have gone straight to the police instead of sending out flyers.
“Most Americans would feel this is not a good thing, especially when you know how easy it is to falsify this stuff, especially when you know there used to be something called due process,” Roberts said. “This kind of crap comes from the Old West, and that went out a long time ago because most people don’t think it’s fair or ethical or right. … It’s not what America’s all about.”
Steven Allemand, who lives in the area, said he was advised of the matter when a man delivering flyers informed him.
While he refused to comment on their conversation, he said the way the information was distributed was not right.
“I told him that without verifying the facts I think sending it out is wrong, because I don’t know if it’s true or not,” Allemand said. “He’s been here for a few years and I haven’t had any problems with him.”
A neighbor with three young children, who asked to remain anonymous, said she monitors her children much more closely since she heard the allegations.
”It did make me a little nervous – for the protection of my children,” she said. ”If they play outside I feel like I need to be out there.”
Perverted-Justice.com chooses not to inform law enforcement about their “busts” because they don’t want to inundate already overstrained departments, said Perverted-Justice.com site administrator Harvey.
Harvey refused to give her real name because of safety issues, she said.
The site has 24 main contributors who pose as young children, concoct profiles, post pictures and then sit in Internet chat rooms, waiting for someone to strike up a conversation, she said.
Most of the time the group operates independent of law enforcement, but in some cases the site works with police to get arrests and subsequent criminal charges, Harvey said.
In May, the group helped set up a sting to arrest a New York City firefighter who contacted one of Perverted-Justice’s contributors, sent pornographic images to them and attempted to meet with them, according to a U.S. Department of Justice-issued statement.
Unlike the Hollister case, the group did not inform the public before authorities arrested the man, according to the statement.
In addition to the main core of contributors that find the alleged pedophiles, more than 10,000 volunteers help with follow-up investigations and distributing of information, said Ig Noto, one of the site’s volunteers, who also refused to give his real name.
”We’re trying to protect our children,” he said. ”About once or twice a week I log on to see if there’s anything I can do to help.”
Calling the Hollister man’s employer and sending out flyers to his neighbors are ways Ig Noto said he helped expose the man who the group alleges solicited sex and sent pornographic images to someone he believed was a 13-year-old girl on the Web.
Before posting anything on its site, Perverted-Justice.com requires several things be verified, Harvey said.
The suspect must be at least over the age of 25, attempting to solicit a person they believe to be age 15 or younger. The site usually poses as minors ages 11 to 15, she said.
Some police departments set up an ”information first agreement” with the organization so they can be informed of a possible predator before the site posts the chat logs and suspect’s information, but even with the information posted the group doesn’t believe they risk ruining a case for police, Harvey said.
Lamonica said many police departments choose not to use Perverted-Justice.com because of the tactics they use, such as posting individuals’ names, phone numbers, addresses and sending out flyers.
”We don’t use them,” Lamonica said. “They’re not bad people, they just screw up investigations like they screwed up ours.”
The San Jose Police Department doesn’t work with the organization because it considers the group vigilantes, said Sgt. Nick Battaglia, supervisor for the Child Exploitation Unit, Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
While the department has followed several tips from the organization and then done its own investigation, the seriousness of the allegations warrants more thorough investigation than the group has the ability to do, he said.
”Their heart’s in the right place, but they have no business doing what they’re doing because there’s no way of checking to find out if the data is valid,” Battaglia said. ”They don’t have the means to validate the allegations. …That could ruin somebody’s life and career.”
