'Vigilante' Web Site Posts 'Pedophile' Information

BALTIMORE -- They have no police powers, but members of a controversial Web site are accusing people of being child sex predators.

There's no arrest or trial -- just punishment -- exposure on the Internet.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter Barry Simms asks if this brand of justice is doing more harm than good.

Self-appointed cyber cops -- patrolling the Internet. Entering chat rooms and busting what they call wannabe pedophiles.

Even posting pictures on this Web site, perverted-justice.com. The group would only speak to us by phone.

Frag Off: "We're going to find them out and we're going to expose them."

Perverted Justice claims this Baltimore area man was seeking sex with children. His photo and phone number are now plastered on the web site along with a transcript of the alleged chat.

The group says he requested a photo from a Perverted Justice member he thought was a 13-year-old girl and said, "I ain't trying to get arrested and all."

Frag Off: "We can't lock somebody up, make their boss fire them, make their wife leave them, or church disown them. We can make people aware of this person."

A D.C. cop is on the site, too. According to Perverted Justice, he even sent a picture of himself in uniform. He's now suspended with pay pending an investigation. Keep in mind, neither man has been charged with a crime.

Lee Tien, Electronic Frontier Foundation: "You've got some fairly sleazy people being looked at by a lot of other sleazy people. It's not a very pretty sight."

Lee Tien is an attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation. The foundation focuses on civil liberty issues including privacy and free speech.

Tien and other critics don't think the Perverted Justice Web site is justice at all. They're concerned the exposure could send real predators into hiding.

And about those chat room transcripts...

Tien: "It's not like a tape on an answering machine. It's so easy to doctor a transcript -- to leave out words."

Perverted Justice says that doesn't happen.

Frag Off: "When you're having a conversation with me in chat, there's no expectation of privacy and it's truthful. If what I was posting was a lie, certainly, but our chat logs are verifiable and they are authentic."

But in many cases those transcripts are useless as legal evidence. FBI special agent Mike Fennerty explains what role they could play.

Fennerty: "The FBI can't endorse a site like this officially. However, information from a site like this may be used to initiate an investigation by law enforcement officers."

Fennerty is part of the FBI's Crimes Against Children unit. His efforts have led to the arrests of many child predators.

Fennerty: "We can't arrest them all. It seems like an endless supply of subjects to investigate."

Simms: "Is this vigilante justice?"

Fennerty didn't answer. But Perverted Justice says yes.

Frag Off: "We want these guys to get help, we want them in jail, we want them out of chat. The bottom line is whatever it takes."

Another man caught in this cyber snare tells me the information about him is completely made up. If that's the case, Perverted Justice says he must prove it.

Until then he remains on the Web site's list of wannabe pedophiles.

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An informative piece. It seems to me that such an organization could be sued on the basis of slander. It is disturbing nonetheless.

DS