Petaluma child sex sting nabs 30 men

[Guy Himmaparn]

Some of Mark Karr's buddies are still at it:

 

Link

 

Thirty men from all over the Bay Area who went to a Petaluma house over the weekend expecting to have sex with juveniles were instead caught in a sting orchestrated by an Internet group and a TV show, organizers said Monday.

 

Neither Petaluma police nor "Dateline NBC" officials would talk about the sting, but an official with an organization that helped it up said the men were arrested over three days beginning Friday.

 

A Sonoma County jail spokesman said a group of suspects were brought in over the weekend in child molestation cases but couldn't provide any other details.

 

The men were lured to the house by volunteers for Perverted Justice, a national organization that combats Internet predators, said Xavier Von Erck, the group's founder.

 

The number of arrests is the second largest in a single sting since the organization began in 2000, Von Erck said.

 

The group set up fictitious identities in Internet chat rooms for supposed 10-to-13 year-old children. When men propositioned the decoys, they were invited to the house, Von Erck said.

 

Waiting for them there were a reporter from "Dateline NBC," hidden cameras and officers from the Petaluma Police Department, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department and the state of California, Von Erck said.

 

The men who came to the house ranged in age from 20 to 60 but most were in their 30s and 40s, Von Erck said.

 

They came from all over the Bay Area, and one came from Fresno, Von Erck said.

 

Von Erck said two Perverted Justice volunteers at the house said about 20 of the men consented to be interviewed and two tried to run but were caught by police.

 

Dateline has organized six of the stings since 2004 in cooperation with Perverted Justice and local law enforcement officials.

 

Von Erck, 27, leads Perverted Justice's network of about 1,500 volunteers out of his Portland, Ore. house.

 

He said he decided to create the group after he saw sexual propositions directed at children in Internet chat rooms and realized that police were not patrolling the Internet.

 

"This is just another example that this happens everywhere," he said. "These guys will show up and try to meet your children. If you are a parent and don't know anything, it's time to learn."

 

The group's Web site, www.perverted-justice.com, provides advice for parents on how to protect their children from would-be predators, he said.

 

Perverted Justice was approached by Petaluma police about doing a "Catch a Predator" sting in the city several months ago, Von Erck said. The sting took about two weeks to set up.

 

The group picked Petaluma because of the notoriety of the Polly Klaas murder and because it had not done a sting in Northern California, he said.

 

-- Jose L. Sanchez Jr.

[OCgringo]

"The group's Web site, www.perverted-justice.com, provides advice for parents on how to protect their children from would-be predators, he said.'

 

I think these guys have the right idae

 

BUT this looks like a "for profit" website , give them money , buy their caps ,

This guy has made a "job" out of this , and getting TV involved has made him some $$$$

 

OC

 

the above is just my opinion, of do-gooders with websites saying "donate" to my paypal account,

this guy might be Mother Teresa for all I know , it just smells.....

[Julian2]

I suppose it had to come, but all the more heat on the sickos the better, even this professional vigilante type stuff.

The part that worries me is they set up children's identities for themselves to trap these people.

[Fidel]

While I agree that everything posible should be done to protect children from sexual predators, I don't think that "smoking them out" should be turned into a f**king reality TV show, or for a profit for that matter.

 

Here's how one of their conversations goes:

"[color:green]donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:10:03 PM): told u i think yer cute

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:10:10 PM): lol just cute?

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:10:19 PM): even hot

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:10:30 PM): ooooo even hot?

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:10:34 PM): yes

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:10:37 PM): i dunno most guys think im not hot

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:10:47 PM): theyre like oh breasts are too small blah blah

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:10:48 PM): theyr nuts

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:11:03 PM): i dunno i hear it all the time

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:11:15 PM): would u let me suck them

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:11:19 PM): lol yeah of ocurse

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:11:26 PM): thatd feel good i bet

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:11:39 PM): well where can i come

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:11:58 PM): come? i dont wanna get pregs so you gotta have a condom

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:12:21 PM): i havem but i am going slow

snakesonagirl (4/21/2006 7:12:34 PM): i just like to know what to be ready for you know?

donni1957_male (4/21/2006 7:13:04 PM): if u are ready for sex ill give it to you but i ave erectile dysfunction wont get real hard

[/color]"

 

 

[AF16]

A couple of questions. Doesn't the US have laws against entrapment? How can the police work 'for' a organisation of civilians? I would think the police would be in charge of their own operations.

 

While I more than agree that we get people like that off the street this does not seem to be the way to do it.

[BKKanalist]

Quite a few years ago there was a guy named Michael Echols who had a foundation called Better A. Millstone. He is dead now but was very active for years in outing people that he thought were pedophiles. You can find out a lot by searching on these two names.

 

He outed a lot of people here in Thailand.

 

I have no probelm with outing, arresting or doing whatever to pedophiles. The problem is that some of these vigilante organsiations have their own agendas.

 

In the case of Better A. Millstone some of the people that he outed were most likely not pedophiles and their lives were ruined anyway.

 

Think the stings are best left to law enforcement and not the media.

[AF16]

Quite a few years ago there was a guy named Michael Echols who had a foundation called Better A. Millstone. He is dead now but was very active for years in outing people that he thought were pedophiles. You can find out a lot by searching on these two names.

 

He outed a lot of people here in Thailand.

 

I have no probelm with outing, arresting or doing whatever to pedophiles. The problem is that some of these vigilante organsiations have their own agendas.

 

In the case of Better A. Millstone some of the people that he outed were most likely not pedophiles and their lives were ruined anyway.

 

Think the stings are best left to law enforcement and not the media.

 

Excactly. The law have checks and balances, some vigilantes with an agenda does not. I'm sure there are many ways they could work in order to help society against pedophiles, but doing sting operation is not one of them.

 

[Old Hippie]

Stings are basically entrapment...tough call as this involves kids...I say fry the fucks and debate it later.

[asiafun]

It would be entrapment if the "girl" was the one who asked for sex first. In this case the perp initiates the request for sex and thus incriminates himself.

[Nervous_Dog]

But he has "Eraectile Dysfunction" What kid is going to know what that is?