Pinellas County Sheriff's Office to stop posting online mug shots

1-17-2014 Florida:

LARGO — Mug shots of inmates at the Pinellas County Jail will no longer be posted on the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office website starting Monday.

Since 2005, the Sheriff's Office has allowed public access to mug shots, which are photographs of inmates who are booked into the jail.

But Sheriff Bob Gualtieri announced Thursday that his office will stop posting the photos online because commercial websites continue to scrape mug shots from his office's "Who's In Jail" web page. Other websites then repost them, and some charge fees if people want their mug shots removed.

"The reposting of their booking photo isn't illegal," Gualtieri said, but added that charging a fee is "unconscionable, verging on blackmail and clearly taking advantage of someone's circumstances."

Last year, mugshots.com advertised removal packages ranging from $399 for removal of one arrest to up to $1,799 for five. But on Thursday, removal costs were not available on the site. Mugshots.com operators could not be reached for comment. Because websites may charge different fees, "a person may have to pay an exorbitant amount of money" to remove each post, the sheriff added.

People searching the "Who's in Jail" site will still be able to access information, such as an inmate's name, charge and date of birth, but photos won't be available online. However, public records requests will be honored, the Sheriff's Office said.

About 50,000 people are booked into the Pinellas County Jail every year. A Florida Sheriff's Association spokeswoman said Thursday that the organization had not heard of any other sheriff's agencies considering removing all booking photos.

Other sheriff's offices in Tampa Bay have not planned to follow suit, but Pasco sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll called the Pinellas change "an interesting development."

"We would just like to see how it works for the time being," he said, adding that arrest information could still be obtained by the commercial websites, even if the photos are not available online.

But Gualtieri said residents he spoke with whose arrest records had been picked up by the websites were mostly concerned about the photos. Gualtieri's decision is among several recent efforts to deter the websites from cashing in on people's arrests.

In June, Shannon Bilotta, 44, was arrested by Largo police on a domestic battery charge and booked into the Pinellas County Jail. The next month, the charge was dropped. But Bilotta's mug shot remains online.

She is the plaintiff in a federal lawsuit against several mug shot websites, including mugshots.com and arrests.org, that was filed in November. Her attorneys are seeking class-action status.

Among them is Tampa lawyer Matthew Crist, who said Gualtieri's decision was "really good news."

"It will stop these websites from being able to acquire content, at least from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office," he said. People "won't face the same problems that Ms. Bilotta did."

A similar lawsuit was filed in Toledo, Ohio, which resulted in a settlement last year that included an agreement with two websites, BustedMugshots.com and MugshotsOnline.com, to stop charging fees for mug shot removals.

The Tampa Bay Times also posts mugshots of arrestees on its website at tampabay.com/mugshots — but does not accept payment for removing them. All photos and booking records published at tampabay.com/mugshots are automatically removed 60 days after the booking date. ..Source.. by Laura C. Morel

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'Revenge porn’ site creator charged with extorting victims to have nude photos removed

12-11-2013 New York:

Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, was arrested and charged with 31 felony counts for allegedly demanding tens of thousands of dollars from victims to remove the photos posted to his explicit website, ugotposted.com.

The creator of a so-called "revenge porn" site that posted nude photos of people without their permission has been arrested in California.

Kevin Christopher Bollaert, 27, of San Diego was charged Tuesday with 31 felony counts after allegedly extorting tens of thousands of dollars from victims to remove the explicit photos posted to his site by others.

A search of the email account to Bollaert's now defunct website, ugotposted.com, revealed 1,040 emails between June and August with the word “remove” in them, according to the search warrant affidavit.

One email from June 20 was from a woman named Kaitly who said she was “extremely p----d” over her intimate photos landing online.

“As a mother and someone who’s trying to go out and look for a job, I don’t appreciate you allowing someone with no life to go and ruin someone that’s trying to do something with their life,” she wrote. “I would like them immediately taken down.”

Another victim sent a June 21 email complaining that her phone had been “going off EVERY 2 MINUTES with strange men sending inappropriate” messages.

“It’s disgusting,” the woman named Melinda wrote. “I don’t know what gets you off about ruining people’s lives, but I was under aged in the photos you posed of me so yes, you are showing child pornography.”

Court documents show that Bollaert allegedly created a second website, changemyreputation.com, so victims could contact it to have their photos removed from ugotposted.com. That request allegedly came at a cost up to $350.

Ballaert told investigators that he received payments totaling tens of thousands of dollars from his websites, according to court documents.

He said he additionally made around $900 per month from his websites' advertising.

“At the beginning, it was fun and entertaining, but now it’s just like ruining my life,” Bollaert told investigators during a Sept. 18 meeting in La Jolla, Calif.

Asked if he understood the damage the website was causing, he replied: “Yeah, I realize like this is not a good situation. I feel bad about the whole thing and like I just don’t want to do it anymore. I mean I know a lot of people are getting screwed over like on the site. Like their lives are getting ruined.”

California Attorney General Kamala Harris echoed his acknowledgement in a statement criticizing his work on Tuesday.

"This website published intimate photos of unsuspecting victims and turned their public humiliation and betrayal into a commodity with the potential to devastate lives," said Harris. "Online predators that profit from the extortion of private photos will be investigated and prosecuted for this reprehensible and illegal Internet activity."

Ballaert is being held in San Diego County jail on $50,000 bail while facing possible jail time and fines.

He has been charged with 31 felony counts of conspiracy, identity theft and extortion.

Individuals who believe they were victimized by ugotposted.com or other revenge porn websites are asked to file a complaint with the California Attorney General's office here. ..Source.. by Nina Golgowski AND Nancy Dillon / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

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LawGuru Question

7-1-2012 Internet:

QUESTION:
I just moved to a new house. Shortly after moving in, I found out that a previous tenant had been a registered sex offender with his address (now my address) listed. Although the state sex offender registry rightfully has delisted my address, it is still listed on private Internet registries who have not responded to my request to remove my address. One site, Offendex.com, even wants me to pay them 200 dollars, otherwise they will NEVER take it off! I really don't have the money for a lawyer to fight this, but I've had two windows broken and my car key-scratched, as well as get late-night honks and shouts of "pervert!" all the time, and I'm frankly scared for my family's safety. Local law enforcement is powerless to do anything. What can I do?

ANSWER:
Contact the attorney general's consumer protection office and see if they can help or point you in the right direction. It is almost extortion to make you pay to have information corrected. The sex offender's name and associated address is supposed to be the information supplied to the public not an address. You may have an injury suit and if a personal injury attorney took the case, they work for a percentage of anything collected, not an upfront fee. ..Source.. By LawGuru

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"Involuntary porn" site tests the boundaries of legal extortion

11-13-2012 National:

Site posts leaked nude photos without consent, charges $250 to take them down.

In the era of Polaroid cameras, you didn't have to worry too much about a racy snapshot you took in the privacy of your bedroom becoming available to the general public. But thanks to the rise of digital cameras and the Internet, that's now a real risk. Hackers, disgruntled exes, and other vindictive individuals who gain access to your compromising digital snapshots can share them with the world with a single click.

Recently, a number of websites have sprung up to cash in on the public humiliation of others. One of the first such sites was IsAnyoneUp, which solicited nude pictures of ordinary Americans submitted by third parties. To maximize the humiliation, the photos were posted along with identifying details such as name and home town. The site's owner, Hunter Moore, reportedly raked in thousands of dollars a month in advertising revenue, and he made the rounds on television talk shows defending his site.

Moore finally shuttered the site earlier this year, but others have jumped in to fill the sordid niche he pioneered. One such site is the creatively named IsAnybodyDown. Like the original, it features naked pictures of ordinary Americans, generally submitted without the subjects' consent, as well as personal information such as their names, hometowns, phone numbers, and screenshots of their Facebook pages.

Sleazy, yes—but is it extortion?

If you think IsAnyoneUp couldn't be any sleazier, then IsAnybodyDown's seems determined to prove you wrong. A link on IsAnybodyDown reading "Get Me Off This Site!" leads to the website of "Takedown Hammer," an "independent third party team" that, for a modest fee of $250, will "issue a successful content removal request on your behalf." It brags of 90 successful removals from IsAnybodyDown.com.

It seems pretty obvious that "Takedown Hammer" isn't actually independent of IsAnybodyDown. Indeed, copyright and First Amendment attorney Marc Randazza has found circumstantial evidence that IsAnybodyDown and Takedown Hammer are, in fact, both owned by a man named Craig Brittain. ...continued... by Timothy B. Lee

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Owner shuts down Blabbermouthkccom, citing huge backlash

7-6-2012 Kansas:

A website that published addresses and photographs of people arrested in Johnson County and offered to remove the embarrassing information for a fee shut down Thursday after a massive backlash.

Matthew Creed of Shawnee said the site would remain down indefinitely. He said he was working with possible investors and might restart it with a different focus and different name.

Creed, 30, said he received death threats and had to relocate his family, which includes two small children, after news spread about his website. Many people objected to his business concept and thought he was trying to profit off people already down on their luck.

“This guy is just a bottom-feeding vulture,” said Jay Norton, a lawyer in Johnson County who had clients featured on the website. “The idea that he was trying to help the community is a total farce.”

Many people also questioned whether the site violated state laws. The Johnson County District Attorney’s office said Thursday it still was investigating.

When Creed started the site, Blabbermouthkc.com, in May, he said he thought he had found a legal way to publish mugshots and ask arrestees for up to $199.99 to delete the information. He sent letters to dozens of people arrested in May and June in envelopes with their mugshots printed on the outside next to the words: “We know …”

The letters congratulated recipients on their recent release from jail and noted their arrests were “obviously embarrassing to you and your family.”

“We have already started blabbing to the world about your release from jail, and we want to make you aware of our services, as we kind of have a big mouth,” the letters said.

If the recipients didn’t pay up, they risked having their neighborhoods flooded with fliers about their arrests, his letter said. The so-called “blitz notification” would be triggered by a request from the public. No fliers were ever distributed.

He said he thought the system was workable but wondered whether people would gripe about it too much.

“And people griped about it way too much,” he said.

Creed said he knew he was delving into gray areas of the law but thought he remained on the right side of the legal line. If he restarts a similar business, he said he would ensure the model stays “a lot farther away from the line.”

Creed posted a note admitting defeat Thursday on kcsr.org, a local message board. Its members had united against Creed after a member who had been featured on Blabbermouthkc.com posted the letter he received from Creed. The members said they thought Creed’s business model amounted to blackmail.

“You win,” Creed wrote. “I’m sincerely sorry to have pissed so many people off, caused the trouble I did, and for everything else. … Can’t change what’s been done ... the past is the past, and I apologize.”

He also asked kcsr.org’s owner to take down photos and personal information posted by message board members about Creed’s family members who had been arrested. Creed said he didn’t care whether the message board left up the information about his own 2010 DUI arrest, but he asked it not to punish his relatives.

“No hard feelings on my side ... sometimes an initial idea doesn’t pan out and needs to go back to the drawing board, and you guys made me realize that,” he wrote.

Creed said he intended for his website to deter crime by notifying the public about people who got arrested. His site allowed users to click on a map to check on their neighbors.

At one point the site featured more than 900 mugshots of people, most of whom had not been convicted. Many had been arrested for DUI, but some were arrested for failing to show up for court for simple traffic tickets.

One person said that her face was posted on the website after a charge against her had been dropped. The 43-year-old woman said the charge came about after she locked herself out of her home over the Memorial Day weekend and broke a window to get inside. Prior to breaking the window, she pounded on her door to awaken her boyfriend, and the ruckus caused a neighbor to call police.

She was booked into jail for criminal damage to property, but a judge dropped the charge within 12 hours.

Still, her mugshot was posted and remained on the website until this week. She was one of dozens of arrestees who received letters from Creed.

“It really did scare me when I got the letter,” said Stacie, who didn’t want her last name published because she didn’t want to be linked to a criminal act she hadn’t committed. “I thought, ‘I’m being blackmailed.’

“I know these are public record, but he made me feel like some sort of criminal. … I didn’t think it could be legal.”

The letter recipient who posted his letter on kcsr.org said he wasn’t overly concerned about his DUI arrest being publicized. Instead, he was concerned that it felt like he was being blackmailed.

“It didn’t seem like he was doing it for the community,” he said. “I didn’t need someone telling me I messed up. I already knew I messed up.”

As the firestorm about the letters grew, Creed pledged to send retraction letters to clarify that he wasn’t threatening anyone. But Creed never sent any retractions because he did not know everyone who received the first letters, he said Thursday. He said that a hacker corrupted all his files on Tuesday and that he had to buy a new laptop computer.

Creed initially planned to revamp the website to focus only on DUI, drug and sex offenders. He registered his website as a nonprofit organization and removed the neighborhood service, and made other changes. But this week he decided to pull the plug entirely.

He declined to say how many people paid him to remove their personal information. But the map on his website — before it was shut down — indicated people at seven addresses had paid.

Creed said he didn’t make any money off the website. Any funds received went to offset the start-up costs, he said.

He’s now considering a member-based “safety-watch” type website, he said.

“Everything’s up in the air for now,” he said. “There are so many different avenues that this thing can potentially go before I go back and brave the firestorm I did.”

Meanwhile, the owner of kcsr.org, Erik Razdins, remained cautious.

“If it (Creed’s website) truly is down, I think it’s a great victory,” he said. ..Source.. by CHRISTINE VENDEL

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