IL- Technicality stings Perverted Justice busts

9-3-2008 Illinois:

WOODSTOCK – Prosecutors referred two Internet solicitation cases to neighboring counties and dropped the local charges after realizing the alleged crimes were committed outside the county.

Wonder Lake police arrested two men this summer through a partnership with Perverted Justice, a nationally known citizen group that tries to uncover Internet sexual predators. The men allegedly went to the small village expecting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl they had met online.

But because the men were chatting online outside the county and the Perverted Justice member who posed as the 13-year-old was chatting online outside the state, McHenry County didn’t have jurisdiction in the cases, said Nichole Owens, head of the McHenry County State’s Attorney’s Criminal Division.

“Admissible evidence exists to support both charges,” Owens said. “The dismissal was based on jurisdictional issues.”

-What evidence? The chat log created by PJ without being monitored by law enforcement, is not evidence, to call it such is to pervert justice!

She said prosecutors did not initially realize that the Perverted Justice representative was not working locally.

On Tuesday, they dropped their case against Daniel S. Urban, 24, of Elk Grove Village, who allegedly brought condoms and a pair of handcuffs to the June 27 sting. He had been charged with attempted aggravated criminal sexual abuse and two counts of indecent solicitation.

Urban’s attorney, John Callahan, declined to comment.

A charge of solicitation of a child was dropped against Grant Boyer, 21, of Tower Lakes, on Thursday. Boyer was arrested May 30 in a similar sting.

Boyer’s attorney, Mark Gummerson, said cases nationwide involving Perverted Justice tend to be fraught with problems.

“When they get involved, it’s always a question of the methods involved,” Gummerson said.

The organization once partnered with Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator,” and claims on its Web site to have helped law enforcement garner 291 convictions nationwide since June 2004. ..News Source.. by JILLIAN DUCHNOWSKI