ACLU leader wants federal review of Polk sex stings

8-13-2014 Florida:

Following 10 Investigates' reports on problems with Central Florida's Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force, the local chair of American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling for a federal review.

Ret. Army Col. Mike Pheneger, the chair of the Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU, expressed concern Monday about how the "To Catch a Predator"-style stings, which remain as popular as ever in West/Central Florida.

"The Justice Department (should) be asked to look into this, since this is federal money that's involved here," said Pheneger, who has also held ACLU leadership positions at the state and national level. "Find out if they are following the rules, because it would appear they are not."

10 Investigates showed how the Central Florida ICAC task force, under the watch of Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, started reaching out to men who simply posted legal ads on legal dating sites. And a number of judges had criticized officers' overreach, their "failing to follow procedures" during sting operations, as well as methods to provoke "a law-abiding citizen to commit a crime."

A 10 Investigates analysis of more than 1,200 Florida arrests since 2008 shows the subjects of the stings often had no previous record and were able to avoid jail time. Many prosecutors have shown leniency, based on the facts of the case and the likelihood the defendant might actually commit a crime on a real child. ..Continued..w/Video.. by Noah Pransky, WTSP

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

Officers bend rules to boost sex sting arrest totals

8-8-2014 Florida:

POLK COUNTY, Florida – In the decade since Chris Hansen and "To Catch a Predator" popularized Internet sex stings, more than 1,200 men in Florida alone have been arrested, accused of preying on underage teens and children for sex.

But as the stings put more and more men behind bars, detectives are working harder and harder to keep up their arrest numbers. And the tactics they're using to put alleged sexual offenders in jail are sweeping up large numbers of law-abiding men, too.

A yearlong investigation by 10 Investigates reveals many of the men whose mugshots have been paraded out by local sheriffs in made-for-TV press conferences were not seeking to meet children online. Instead, they were minding their own business, looking for other adults, when detectives started to groom and convince them to break the law.

While detectives used to post ads suggesting an underage teen or child was available for sex, they now routinely post more innocuous personal ads of adults on traditional dating sites. When men – many of them under 25 with no criminal history - respond, officers switch the bait and typically indicate their age is really 14 or 15 years old. However, sometimes the storyline isn't switched until the men, who were looking for legal love, already start falling for the undercover agent.

According to arrest affidavits inspected by 10 Investigates, law enforcement is also now routinely making first contact with men who have done nothing wrong, responding to their ads on dating sites like PlentyOfFish.com. After men start conversing with what they think are adults, officers change the age they claim to be, but try to convince the men to continue the conversation anyway.

Other examples include undercover officers showing interest in a man, then later introducing the idea of having sex with the undercover's "child." If the men indicate they weren't interested, they were still often arrested for just talking to the adult.

Critics of the stings, including a number of prominent Tampa Bay law enforcement leaders, tell 10 News the operations make for better press conferences than they do crime fighting. Many of the men who are arrested for sexual predator crimes see little jail time.

But Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, when asked about over-aggressive detectives, instead went on the offensive: "The concern (I have) is that you inflate your investigative reporting to make it glitzy."

Judges have also been very critical of some of the tactics used in the stings, ..Continued..w/Video.. by Noah Pransky, WTSP

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

CA- Judge upholds charges in 'Dateline Doc' case

10-6-2009 California:

A Sonoma County judge has denied a defense motion to dismiss the case of an East bay doctor caught in a televised sex-predator sting in Petaluma three years ago.

Judge Arthur Wick found that the failure of a computer hard-drive containing online chats between Dr. Maurice Wolin and a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl did not harm the defense case because the material was recorded on a proxy server.

Further, Wick said in the four-page ruling the prosecution’s failure to disclose at a preliminary hearing that the computer did not violate Wolin’s rights.” At most, such information would have been only “potentially” exculpatory, Wick said.

Wolin was one of 28 men arrested in August 2006 during a three-day sting law enforcement conducted in partnership with a group called Perverted Justice and the NBC-TV show "To Catch a Predator.” Prosecutors contend the Piedmont doctor drove to Petaluma to have sex with the girl.

Wolin has challenged the authenticity of the online chats police say he engaged in with the decoy, Xavier Von Erck, a founder of the online group.

Wolin’s trial is expected to begin in January. ..Source.. by PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

CA- Predator sting 'decoy' ordered to explain missing evidence

Is there some hanky panky going on here? Hopefully the judge will get to the hard drive on the 15th. Further, the court had better have someone prove that that drive was once installed in Von Erck's home computer which should also be brought to court for examination.

6-4-2009 California:

A central player in the prosecution of an East Bay doctor arrested in a televised sex-predator sting in Petaluma has been ordered to appear before a Sonoma County judge to explain how crucial data on his computer apparently was lost.

Computer chat logs reflecting sexually tinged online conversations gathered by a decoy affiliated a vigilante group are key to the prosecution of Dr. Maurice Wolin, 51, of Piedmont.

Wolin, along with 28 others, was arrested in August 2006 during a three-day sting law enforcement conducted in partnership with a group called Perverted Justice and the NBC TV show “To Catch a Predator.”

He is challenging the authenticity of the online chats police say he engaged in with the decoy, Xavier Von Erck, a founder of the online group. Von Erck and other online decoys posed as young teens who arranged to meet adult men ostensibly for sex.

Von Erck, who calls members of his group “evil vigilantes,” testified that the chats were saved on his home computer hard drive. But after a judge late last year ordered that mirror images of the hard drive be turned over to defense attorneys, Von Erck told prosecutors his hard drive had crashed in February 2007 and the data was irretrievably lost.

But, he said, he had copied the chat logs to a portable hard drive before the crash.

Interesting, the difference between the two drives is? The home computer hard drive contains OTHER INFORMATION, and what might that OTHER INFORMATION reveal about Perverted Justice? Personally it is time for a PROPER analysis of that hard drive by qualified personnel, not Radio Shack friends.

Von Erck told prosecutors he had a friend, a technician at Radio Shack, examine the hard drive, prosecutor Brian Staebell said, and that the friend determined it was beyond repair.

Amazing, how about using a qualified forensic computer analyst, especially given hard drive is allegedly the result of a police investigation.

Wolin’s defense attorney, Blair Berk of Los Angeles, characterizes Von Erck’s explanation as “highly suspicious.”

“To date, no legally sufficient evidence of Mr. Von Erck’s claim has been presented to this court,” Judge Arthur Andy Wick wrote in an order made public this week.

Von Erck didn’t mention the crash during his testimony at Wolin’s lengthy preliminary hearing in September 2007.

Staebell said Von Erck only recently notified his investigators of the crash. He said the chats were also preserved on Perverted Justice’s main proxy server at a remote location.

Even more interesting, if they were preserved on the remote location, why was it necessary to make a copy from the Home Computer of Von Erck which allegedly crashed?

Wick tentatively ruled last month that prosecutors needed to provide a fuller explanation of Von Erck’s claim and the current status of the hard drive. On Tuesday he issued a more specific, written ruling.

Wick ordered that Von Erck appear before the court on June 15 and bring with him his computer hard drive “in whatever condition it is in.”

He also said he wants answers to the following questions, among others:

Can a copy of the hard drive be made? Can any information be retrieved from it? When did Von Erck copy the chats onto a thumb drive? How was the thumb drive created and from what hard drive?

Wick said he also wants explanations of how the proxy server recorded the chats and whether the recordings were independent from Von Erck’s computer. He has expressed concern about the logs’ reliability and their chain of custody.

Staebell has said Wolin’s attorneys are overstating the importance of the chats and Von Erck’s hard drive. He said all the relevant files were preserved before the crash.

Wolin’s attorneys have questioned the timing of the crash and Von Erck’s motives and truthfulness. Perverted Justice was paid $140,000 for the Petaluma sting and Von Erck takes a $125,000 salary from Perverted Justice.

Petaluma police, who organized the sting with the online group, accepted Perverted Justice’s civilian decoys, who aren’t trained or monitored by police, and allowed NBC to rent the house and provide all the audio and video equipment for the operation.

Several of the men arrested have pleaded guilty or no contest to a variety of charges, ranging from annoying a minor to attempted lewd conduct with a child. Other cases are pending.

Some have been sentenced to probation and others to jail. All have been required to register as sex offenders for the rest of their lives.

Wolin, who has pleaded not guilty, faces a potential four-year prison term if convicted of a felony charge of attempted lewd conduct. His medical license has been suspended pending the prosecution.

Wolin has been free on bail since shortly after his arrest. ..Source.. by LORI A. CARTER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

CA- Failed hard drive becomes issue in predator sting case

When you need a comvenience store you can never find one, but you can always create one. We will be following this very interesting case.

5-21-2009 California

A Sonoma County judge wants additional testimony from a prosecution witness in the case against an East Bay oncologist arrested in a televised “online sex-predator” sting three years ago in Petaluma.

At issue is the potential admissibility of key evidence against Dr. Maurice Wolin, 51.

Judge Arthur Andy Wick tentatively ruled Thursday in favor of defense attorneys who were seeking an explanation from prosecutors about why they haven’t turned over a computer hard drive a decoy allegedly used during electronic chats with Wolin.

Wolin was among 29 men arrested in August 2006 during a three-day sting police conducted in partnership with the advocacy group Perverted Justice and producers of Dateline NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” TV series. The sting resulted in two hours of programming showing men arriving at an East Petaluma home, ostensibly to meet with an underage boy or girl with whom they’d arranged a rendezvous online.

Prosecutors said the decoy — the founder of Perverted Justice, Xavier Von Erck, who calls his members vigilantes — told them the hard drive on which he recorded the Wolin chats on crashed two years ago and that its data is irretrievable.

Wolin’s attorneys questioned the timing of the alleged computer crash and Von Erck’s motives and truthfulness. Von Erck’s organization was paid $140,000 for the Petaluma sting and Von Erck himself takes a $125,000 salary from Perverted Justice.

Wolin is charged with attempted lewd conduct with a child, a felony that could mean a maximum of four years in prison if he is convicted. He also would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. His medical license has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

On Thursday, Wick indicated he would issue a written ruling that would order an evidentiary hearing to pin Von Erck down on when the hard drive crashed, exactly what that means and how he says he copied the contents of the hard drive onto a portable thumb drive.

The data from the thumb drive — chat logs that show four days of sexually tinged conversations, allegedly between Wolin and a 13-year-old girl — was entered into evidence at Wolin’s preliminary hearing in 2007 after Von Erck testified that the information was a true representation of the conversations.

One of Wolin’s attorneys, Blair Berk of Los Angeles, said the revelation of the hard drive failure raises doubts about the reliability of the chats and calls into question the chain of custody for evidence prosecutors want to use against Wolin.

“The defense believes they are a false, inaccurate and incomplete reflection of the actual chat,” she told Wick.

Prosecutor Brian Staebell said the defense greatly overstates the importance of the chats and the damaged hard drive. He said Von Erck already had copied the relevant files and “there is no more information on it.”

Wick said he remains concerned about the reliability of the logs and their chain of custody. He tentatively set a June 15 hearing date to have Von Erck explain under oath what happened, and when, with his computer equipment, and where it is now. Computer experts also may testify.

Wick previously dealt the prosecution a blow by ruling that Petaluma Police twice violated Wolin’s Miranda rights by continuing to interrogate him after he’d asked for a lawyer. Wolin’s statements to police were tossed out.

The ruling didn’t exclude other prosecution evidence against Wolin, including the chats and video recordings showing Wolin arriving at the house, talking with a female decoy and being arrested after he apparently saw TV monitors and began to leave.

Several times during the chats, Wolin declined or expressed discomfort with idea of a meeting, saying that they “can’t do anything” if they did meet. Wolin acknowledges driving from the Bay Area to the Petaluma home police had staked out and rigged with cameras for the sting. But he contends he wasn’t intending to engage in sex acts.

Wolin has been free on bail since shortly after his arrest. ..News Source.. by LORI A. CARTER, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT




Judge seeks additional testimony in sex sting: Ruling in Petaluma case would review admissibility of evidence against East Bay doctor

5-22-2009 California:

A Sonoma County judge wants additional testimony from a key prosecution witness against an East Bay oncologist arrested in a televised "online sex-predator" sting three years ago in Petaluma.

At issue is the potential admissibility of key evidence against Dr. Maurice Wolin, 51.

Judge Arthur Andy Wick tentatively ruled Thursday in favor of defense attorneys, who were seeking an explanation from prosecutors about why they haven't turned over a computer hard drive a decoy allegedly used during electronic chats with Wolin.

Wolin was among 29 men arrested in August 2006 during a three-day sting police conducted in partnership with the advocacy group Perverted Justice and producers of Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" TV series. The sting resulted in two hours of programming showing men arriving at an East Petaluma home, ostensibly to meet with an underage boy or girl with whom they'd arranged a rendezvous online.

Prosecutors said the decoy -- the founder of Perverted Justice, Xavier Von Erck, who calls his members vigilantes -- told them the hard drive on which he recorded the Wolin chats crashed two years ago and that its data is irretrievable.

Wolin's attorneys questioned the timing of the alleged computer crash and Von Erck's motives and truthfulness. Von Erck's organization was paid $140,000 for the Petaluma sting and Von Erck himself takes a $125,000 salary from Perverted Justice.

Wolin is charged with attempted lewd conduct with a child, a felony that could mean a maximum of four years in prison if he is convicted. He also would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. His medical license has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.

On Thursday, Wick indicated he would issue a written ruling that would order an evidentiary hearing to pin Von Erck down on when the hard drive crashed, exactly what that means and how he says he copied the contents of the hard drive onto a portable thumb drive.

The data from the thumb drive -- chat logs that show four days of sexually tinged conversations, allegedly between Wolin and a 13-year-old girl -- was entered into evidence at Wolin's preliminary hearing in 2007 after Von Erck testified that the information was a true representation of the conversations.

One of Wolin's attorneys, Blair Berk of Los Angeles, said the revelation of the hard drive failure raises doubts about the reliability of the chats and calls into question the chain of custody for evidence prosecutors want to use against Wolin.

"The defense believes they are a false, inaccurate and incomplete reflection of the actual chat," she told Wick.

Prosecutor Brian Staebell said the defense greatly overstates the importance of the chats and the damaged hard drive. He said Von Erck already had copied the relevant files and "there is no more information on it."

Wick said he remains concerned about the reliability of the logs and their chain of custody. He tentatively set a June 15 hearing date to have Von Erck explain under oath what happened, and when, with his computer equipment, and where it is now. Computer experts also may testify.

Wick previously dealt the prosecution a blow by ruling that Petaluma police twice violated Wolin's Miranda rights by continuing to interrogate him after he'd asked for a lawyer. Wolin's statements to police were tossed out.

The ruling didn't exclude other prosecution evidence against Wolin, including the chats and video recordings showing Wolin arriving at the house, talking with a female decoy and being arrested after he apparently saw TV monitors and began to leave.

Several times during the chats, Wolin declined or expressed discomfort with idea of a meeting, saying that they "can't do anything" if they did meet. Wolin acknowledges driving from the Bay Area to the Petaluma home police had staked out and rigged with cameras for the sting. But he contends he wasn't intending to engage in sex acts.

Wolin has been free on bail since shortly after his arrest. ..Source.. by Lori A. Carter

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...

WI- Anatomy of a sting

1-19-2009 Wisconsin:

How law enforcement officers catch Internet predators

On Thursday, Racine Mayor Gary Becker joined hundreds of other suspected child predators who have been charged with attempted sexual assault of a child following an online sting operation by state agents.

For the past 10 years state agents with the Division of Criminal Investigation’s Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force have been posing as children online in an effort to lure and arrest pedophiles. They spend hours surfing the net, using profiles that identify them as teens.

Suspected child predators make contact with the agents, form relationships online that oftentimes lead to the arrangement of a meeting and the intent of having sex.

When the suspected predator shows up at the meeting place, agents arrest them.

Current records show that the DCI task force has arrested 574 suspected pedophiles between 1999 and 2008. However, the total number of arrests for 2008 is not yet complete.

According to the criminal complaint filed against Becker, he allegedly formed a relationship online with what he thought was a 14-year-old, eighth-grade girl. That girl was really Special Agent Eric Szatkowski.

The Journal Times interviewed Szatkowski in 1999, when the task force had just started. A reporter sat and watched him chat online with a potential predator while pretending to be a 13-year-old boy.

During the two-hour mid-day demonstration, four adults sent instant messages about sex to the agent posing as a boy.

At that time, Szatkowski said when he first started going online posing as a child, he was amazed with the number of adults online who seem interested in discussing sex with people they know to be

children.

But chatting about sex itself isn’t the crime.

A suspect must show up someplace, intending to meet and sexually entice a child, before authorities will charge him.

According to the 1999 story, state agents are careful to point out they follow all laws regarding entrapment. They don’t bring up the subject of meeting and they don’t bring up sex

immediately.

But the online stings and the legality of the charges prosecutors were using to charge suspects caught in them have been challenged.

Following dozens of arrests during the first two years of the task force, prosecutions were stalled, some charges were dismissed and other cases ended in probation sentences for the offenders. Defense attorneys here and elsewhere questioned the legality of attempted sexual assault of a child and child enticement charges through the state’s appellate courts.

In June of 2002 the state Supreme Court upheld the charging, allowing stalled cases to move forward and in some cases, dismissed charges to be reinstated.

Wisconsin Deputy Attorney General Raymond Taffora said the task force has really grown in recent years. When it was started, Szatkowski and his partner were working online for overtime. Now, Taffora said they have seven agents, six analysts and a program assistant assigned to the program. “It’s become more organized,” he said.

The task force also has 60 law enforcement agencies as local partners that work with them. It’s cooperation that is needed to keep up with what authorities believe is an increasing amount of crimes against children online.

“There is plenty of evidence that the amount of child pornography available and shared on the Internet is growing and is significant,” Taffora said. “We’re doing what we can. We’re going to keep at it.” ..News Source.. by Marci Laehr Tenuta, Journal Times

Read More of Article...

Article Summary only...