Apr 24, 2008

Modern vigilante takes cue from TV

By Bil Paul

Back when I was growing up in a small Midwestern town there was a likable guy in his 30s who worked in one of the small downtown stores. He was very active in kids' sports, preferred the company of children to that of adults and wasn't married. Some people thought these qualities to be a bit odd, but there was never any evidence that he had a sexual interest in youngsters. Still, people kept a close eye on him.

Jump 50 years into the future, and we have the Internet, where one can see pornography anonymously instead of having to be seen entering an adult bookstore or theater. It's easy to think that one has an element of safety and protection when online because you're sitting in your own home and using fictitious screen names. This goes for both those seeking sex on the Internet and those who are there for thousands of other reasons. But most don't realize the amount of tracking that occurs on the Internet and how easy it is to know an individual's viewing habits, even if the exact name and location of that individual isn't immediately available. And then there are Internet vigilantes.

James Koch, a 49-year-old resident of Pacifica, must've felt comfortable placing a personals ad on craigslist in 2006 under "casual encounters" with a subject line of "Daddy seeking young girl right now." In the ad, he stated that respondents needed to be over 18, since that was craigslist's policy and besides, it was illegal for him to have sexual relations with anyone younger. A person identifying herself as Natalie Baker responded and ingratiated herself with him. It wasn't until later that she admitted to being 17, then 15.

What Koch didn't know was that he was trading e-mails with an 18-year-old man elsewhere in the county. This man, who has never been publicly identified, had seen some episodes of the NBC TV Dateline segment "To Catch a Predator." In this show, in various cities around the country, an aggressive group called Perverted Justice worked with the show's producer and local law enforcement to set up Internet stings for men over 18 to meet with what they thought were female teens under 18. Illegal, of course. Even men who had seen previous episodes of "Predator" were snared. They showed up at a home or other location, and were filmed and interviewed as they sheepishly entered looking for "Caitlin" or "Paige."

The local 18-year-old man went looking for such perpetrators on craiglist's personal ads, saw Koch's and tried to copy the "To Catch a Predator" sting technique (except that in his case, he made the initial approach - it's usually the reverse in Perverse Justice's stings). When talk turned explicitly sexual and Koch had completely swallowed the bait, the man turned the information over to the county sheriff's office, where a detective took over the messaging. What sealed Koch's involvement in the sting was sending nude photos of himself to the detective and agreeing to meet at a Highway 280 rest stop near San Carlos. There, likely sheepish himself, Koch was arrested and booked for sending sexual messaging and photos to a minor, and an attempted lewd act against a minor - two felonies.

I'll agree that there are some serious predators out there - whether finding their under-18 victims through direct social contact or via the Internet. They've refined their techniques and often brag of the number of children they've "groomed" and had sexual contact with. They are somewhat aggressive and usually initiate contact first. They are serial criminals and need to be put away for a long time.

What bothers me about the Koch case are the elements of vigilantism and entrapment. A young man saw a TV show and felt empowered to go trolling for predators. He apparently had no formal training in the legalities of sting operations, apparently no training in law enforcement, and he initiated contact, even though Koch's ad said he didn't want to meet anyone under 18. I am not privy to the e-mails that ensued between the two, but the man posing as "Natalie" apparently gained Koch's trust and, apparently his affections, before revealing "she" was 17, then 15. Was Koch out looking for girls under 18? Obviously not (Koch is 49 - from that perspective, "young girls" probably meant women in their 20s). Did he make mistakes once the online relationship progressed? Yes. Should he go to prison for his mistakes? Questionable.

His lawyer, Henry Wykowski, feels that what happened was entrapment, and says that Koch has no previous record of sexual improprieties and there was no evidence of underage porn in his home. However, due to the media coverage of child molestations and predators, and shows such as "To Catch a Predator," Wykowski concluded that a sympathetic jury was unlikely to be found. Koch accepted a plea bargain to one felony (sending sexual images to a presumed underage person) instead of being charged with two felonies in a jury trial. There's the potential to be sentenced to up to a year in jail.

Stings to apprehend predators targeting underage girls and boys should be staffed by trained police officers who don't lead people along to do things they ordinarily wouldn't do. They would let the predators make the moves and wouldn't work with sensational TV shows that virtually declare suspects guilty before being proven guilty or admitting guilt.

I have heard that those arrested and convicted of child molestation and predation - when they serve jail time - are seen by other convicts as the lowest of the low (or "chicken hawks"), and are attack targets. Let's make sure that those who are convicted deserve to be there.



Bil Paul's column appears Thursdays in the Daily News. Reach him at natural_born_writer@yahoo.com.