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http:// --> Ashland, Oregon HOME Valley & State Sports Nation & World Opinion/Editorial Classifieds Business Columnists Obituaries Weather Archive Hot Topics Forum Photo Gallery Past Readers Polls Revels Etcetera Backpage O-Zone Special Sections Real Estate Guide Menu Guide Shakespeare Subscribe Contact Us Rate Card Place an Ad Online Games Movie Preview October 11, 2006 Internet stings of potential pedophiles cause controversy By Susannah Rosenblatt Los Angeles Times Michael Seibert had been through this before. The 26-year-old was arrested in January for allegedly trying to rendezvous with a teenager for sex in Riverside County in Southern California — a girl he met online. This September, it happened again. Just like last time, the girl online said she was 13, and agreed to meet him, police said. "r u a cop," the Anaheim, Calif., man allegedly typed to "Kiera." On the night of Sept. 3. "I do not want to get cought. (sic)" Just like last time, the "girl" was actually an adult volunteer with Perverted-Justice.com, a Web site of self-styled watchdogs who masquerade as bait on the Internet to expose what they say are would-be child molesters. Seibert, a grocery store worker, was arrested Sept. 9 in Long Beach, Calif., on suspicion of an attempted lewd act with a child under 14 — the same charge he faces in Riverside. He has plead not guilty in both cases. Once an obscure Internet way station for so-called vigilantes, the Portland, Ore.-based Perverted Justice has become a powerful machine for targeting adults whom Web site volunteers call potential pedophiles, and exposing them to shame and arrest. But its taste for media attention and role of ad hoc police force has brought criticism. Web site volunteers have teamed up with police nationwide to set up clandestine Internet chat-room stings, which are often orchestrated for television cameras, including one in Riverside County for NBC's "Dateline" in January. Yet many prosecutors and law enforcement officials refuse to associate with Perverted Justice, concerned about the civilian group's lack of professional training and knack for attracting the spotlight. "Do you really want citizens groups running around imposing their own form of justice?" asked Brad Russ at the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a federally funded national network with more than 1,200 affiliated law enforcement agencies fighting predators online. The founder of Perverted-Justice, Xavier Von Erck, boasts of the Web site's aggressive tactics and results: volunteers have helped nab scores of Internet prowlers in California alone, with major busts in Riverside County, Long Beach, Petaluma and Laguna Beach. "There's no feeling like it when you find a guy who's molested a kid in North Dakota and then he gets arrested for it," Von Erck said. "You can't really compare it to anything else." That feeling of empowerment frightens attorney Steve Harmon, who is representing Seibert and four other defendants arrested in the Perverted Justice sting in Riverside. "When Perverted Justice is out there trolling or fishing for people who may not have had the intention to get into this trouble but are led into it, then I think that's very disturbing," Harmon said, who said Seibert has "very severe mental issues," resulting from a brain injury sustained when he was baby. "Dateline" used Perverted Justice volunteers in stings — like the Long Beach operation in September that netted 38 arrests — that lured men to houses, where they allegedly expected to meet a teen. Instead, they were greeted by "Dateline" cameras and local police. "Dateline" correspondent Chris Hansen, a host of the popular series, said that since the episodes aired in 2004, he has seen a "shift in attitude" of local authorities toward the organization. "They've gone from being considered a vigilante group to being a watchdog group," said Hansen, who added that Perverted Justice volunteers are paid consultants similar to military analysts often used by TV networks. Internet crimes against children have emerged in recent years as a growing threat. FBI cases opened against online child pornographers and those using the Internet have increased 2000 percent in the last decade, according to agency statistics. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's cyber tip line fields as many as 140 leads a week concerning enticement of children online. "We know we've got a growing problem, (with) more than enough cases being generated than law enforcement" can handle, said John Shehan, the tip line program manager. Von Erck, who manages the Perverted Justice site full time, said he started searching for potential molesters about five years ago, after watching men talk up teenagers online in regional forums. The Web site now claims to have helped convict 86 attempted sex offenders. Von Erck himself is somewhat of a mystery. A 27-year-old college dropout from Portland, Ore., he said that he has changed his name because he associated it with his estranged father. He would not reveal what his name was changed from, or confirm published news reports that he was born Philip John Eide. In the early years of Perverted Justice, the Web site posted a slew of detail about men whom volunteers suspected of trying to lure children online; including the names and phone numbers of neighbors and employers — all part of a campaign of shame. Von Erck said such posts are no longer commonplace, and in most cases are removed. About 65 volunteers, screened internally with background checks and oversight by senior site members, pretend to be teenagers in Internet chat rooms, using fictional profiles, slang and misspelled words to portray an adolescent convincingly. Volunteers across the country chat from home; the group's virtual office allows site administrators to monitor chats on a centralized server. As conversations progress, volunteers with young-sounding voices take calls from adults wanting to meet a minor in person. Some of the volunteers are victims of abuse, Von Erck said, determined to prevent others from experiencing the same trauma. Others are retired or former law enforcement officials, or concerned citizens. The group's first conviction was in June 2004, the result of a Detroit media sting that year. These days, chats aren't posted on the Web site until sentences are handed down. Critics of the site have complained that many of Web site's reported online "busts" don't lead anywhere, simply exposing the individual for public ridicule rather than prosecution, or as some claim, harassment at the hands of Perverted Justice volunteers. Minnesota kindergarten teacher Julie Cison accused Perverted Justice volunteers of waging an unrelenting attack on her son. According to police reports, her 24-year-old son asked a Perverted Justice volunteer posing as a 13-year-old girl if she liked thong underwear, and then tried to rendezvous with her at the Mall of America. He was never charged or convicted of wrongdoing. "They're dirty and they're underhanded," Cison said. She has assisted an anti-Perverted Justice Web site to attack Von Erck's credibility, because Perverted-Justice.com "is judge and jury over these people's lives." Von Erck disputes Cison's claims, and says the site now works almost exclusively with law enforcement. Although legal and law enforcement officials agree that eradicating Internet predators is tough, many remain leery of joining forces with the Perverted Justice crew. Because the Web site's volunteers are not law enforcement officials, some prosecutors fear that the evidence they collect may be inadmissible in court. "Why engage in something and devote our extraordinarily limited resources when there may be a problem down the road?" said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Los Angeles. "Why prosecute a case halfway, only to have it dismissed on some legal basis?" Von Erck confirmed that the group took on a "consultant" role for "Dateline," drawing their first real income for the online work and hiring an agent. Before then Von Erck survived on a part-time tech support job and modest donations to the site. Perverted Justice is in the process of seeking non-profit status, Von Erck said. Riverside County Sheriff's deputies contacted Perverted Justice after watching a "Dateline" sting in early 2004, and organized eight small-scale arrest operations in 2005. In January, the online group and local deputies collaborated to entice scores of men to a house rented by "Dateline" in Mira Loma, Calif., for liaisons with underage boys or girls, authorities said. The sting led to 51 arrests. "Nobody can remember anything this big," said Lt. Chad Bianco, with the Riverside County Sheriff's Department, of the massive bust. "They were doing all of the grunt work that is very, very manpower intensive." Leave a Comment: Advertisement: Advertisement: Paid Advertising Inkjet Printers Student Loans Water Filter Helzberg Diamonds Mortgage Calculator Security Systems Advertisement: Copyright © 2006 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers. All Rights Reserved.