Are the Columbus online predator stings progressive policing or entrapment?

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Big Brother can stay the hell out of my life. I'd rather die with myself trying to protect myself, then by some law enforcement gestapo who cannot even protect this country. If they could, 9/11, Virginia Masacre, Columbine, and all the other stuff would not have occurred. STAY OUT OF MY LIFE!

04/20/2007

Editor's note: The Columbus Police Department arrested two men within the span of a few weeks earlier this year in an online sting operation designed to catch online predators targeting children. This is the first installment of a three-part series examining the use of undercover police to arrest suspected pedophiles who travel to meet the underage children they believe they have met online.

The methods employed by part-time Columbus Police Officer Dennis Weiner to snare alleged online predators have drawn the attention of several criminal defense attorneys who say his investigations could amount to entrapment and outrageous government conduct.

The sting operations have been heralded as progressive policing by Columbus Police Chief Gerald Sallman, who approved the practice, and by Wisconsin Department of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Eric Szatkowski, who has conducted numerous online sting operations targeting those he considers to be online predators.

Szatkowski also has toured the state giving the presentation "The Dark Side of the Internet," a series of parent-oriented speeches about the dangers of child predators that he began after investigating online predator cases beginning about eight years ago.

Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said he supports these types of investigations, particularly at the state level.

"This is such a vital issue for us in the (Wisconsin) State Department of Justice," he told the Daily Register. "These (investigations) are time-consuming, they require a degree of expertise, and it's very difficult for local law enforcement officers and agencies to have the resources to deal with these cases. It makes it that much more imperative that we in the State Department of Justice help them with these. We do that through training and by providing technical assistance."

Wisconsin is working toward an increased involvement in Internet crimes against children, Van Hollen said.

"It's an area where there is a huge amount of criminality," he said. "The people we're protecting are the people who are least capable of protecting themselves."
- I can protect myself thank you very much, I do not need the gestapo thinking they can do it for me.

As part of the Wisconsin Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Szatkowski has told audiences during his speeches that he has played a major role in the apprehension of more than 70 adults who have preyed on children.

The DCI agent also has provided training to numerous officers from community law enforcement agencies about how to catch and prosecute those he believes target children through the Internet. Weiner said he participated in one of Szatkowski's three-day law enforcement training sessions about how to investigate sex offender cases.

The arrests

While more and more members of the law enforcement community are being trained to conduct these types of investigations, some criminal defense attorneys are taking notice — and questioning the methods employed.

Madison attorney Christopher Van Wagner is representing Christopher Hurst, a Janesville man arrested in one of Weiner's online stings after the man allegedly traveled to Columbus on March 12 to have sex with a 15-year-old girl he had met online. According to the criminal complaint, Hurst, 29, was arrested after he arrived for the meeting and discovered the girl was the middle-aged Columbus police officer.

According to the criminal complaint, Hurst and the "girl" corresponded for several days in numerous chats, many sexually graphic in nature. The logs consist of 58 pages of text and span hours of time chatting back and forth.

Within half an hour of the initial contact, Hurst asks the "girl" if she is a good kisser, according to the chat logs.

A few weeks prior to Hurst's arrest, a 20-year-old Fort Atkinson man was snared in a similar investigation conducted by Weiner.

Jared Banker also is accused of traveling to Columbus to meet what he thought was a 15-year-old girl and was similarly disappointed.

According to police reports obtained by the Daily Register, Banker told officers arresting him that "I knew I was going to get arrested."

Banker and the "girl" started corresponding Feb. 11 and by Feb. 12 had decided to meet. He was arrested Feb. 13 in the Columbus High School parking lot.

The chat log in this case also shows graphic sexual discussions. Within 15 minutes of meeting online a girl he believed to be 15 years old, he asks her if she is "horny," according to the criminal complaint.

At the time Banker was arrested, police said they discovered he had two knives in his pockets, two more in his car, a poster of sexual positions and other items of a sexual nature.

Banker is scheduled to appear in court again Thursday. He was released on a $10,000 signature bond.

Investigation questioned

Hurst had been employed as an instructional aide who worked with autistic children at Janesville Craig High School.

He was placed on administrative leave without pay following his arrest, according to Janesville School District Public Information Specialist Sheryl Miller. He resigned March 18.

The case caused an uproar in the community, but also had severe effects on Hurst's life, Van Wagner said.

"In my 25 years as a defense attorney, I've never seen methods quite like this used ever before," he said. "We're fully exploring all potential defenses to the charges, including entrapment and outrageous government conduct."

Hurst is next due in court May 23. He remains free on a $5,000 signature bond.

The lack of public discussion about how these crimes should be investigated has led Madison defense attorney Stephen Hurley to express concern that law enforcement may be creating its own rules as it goes.

"There is no public sentiment for child molesters," he said. "Not that I'm saying there should be, but the question needs to be asked: What does the public want to see accomplished?"

Hurley, who also has been an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Law since 1989, said sex crimes traditionally have been measured by a criminal's ability to commit crimes.

Offenses were understood to occur when molesters were presented with an opportunity, he said.

"The Internet is a whole different venue, and some see it as a gigantic playground in which access is not geographically limited," Hurley said. "The Internet has provided a new outlet for contact with children by child predators."

The public perceives the Internet as an unregulated technology that provides a new venue for pedophiles, who take advantage of it at every opportunity, Hurley said.
- It needs to remain unregulated, or we ALL loose more freedom. They are already working on Internet 2, which will replace the existing network and embed spying and all kinds of other technology to further monitor everyone.

"If you assume the correctness of that assertion, then that naturally alarms people," he said. "Yet this is a new line of police work — a shift in the way crimes are uncovered."

Law enforcement officials should be passive when investigating crime, Van Wagner said, adding that he believes a more active role causes concern about an overreaching police force.

An old strategy for a new crime

Van Hollen said these kinds of investigations have been used for decades to arrest criminals, and the use of undercover police to catch predators is not a new practice.

"I don't think there's anything new about this law enforcement strategy at all," he said. "I've been in the law enforcement business now for about 15 years and it seems to me that — maybe to a lesser degree — these sorts of investigations have been going on since that time."

Another issue facing law enforcement agencies considering similar investigations is manpower.

Sallman said he supports Weiner's investigations because there is a need in the community.

"It's not something that commands a full officer," he said. "It is a significant problem in the community and we've decided to act on it."

Weiner also is a full-time police officer in Waunakee.

Sallman admitted there were tradeoffs for a community police force.

"We're barely keeping up with activity levels in the community," he said. "It's a reallocation of resources and we try to quickly adapt to change where perceived problems exist."

Van Hollen said the state is working to do more to help local agencies handle these kinds of issues.

"It's the most important thing for the state government to do in law enforcement or public safety is help local law enforcement in areas that they can't necessarily help themselves."

Van Hollen said he was glad to see local departments engaging in these kinds of investigations, but recognized few have the resources to delve into these kinds of matters.

Weiner's two arrests required 110 pages of police reports, hours of investigation time and the presence of several officers to make the arrests.

Even with the questions raised about the investigation methods, Van Hollen said drug investigations have been conducted in a similar manner for decades.

"You provide an undercover officer or a confidential informant who goes and sells or buys drugs with a known dealer for purposes of making sure you that have good evidence against them," he said. "This is the same concept. It's just been used with regards to child enticement."

Defining a crime

Hurley said the use of undercover agents has always been questioned, adding that problems arise when police pose as people whom they are not, lie about what they are doing and then work toward an arrest. He also questioned the parallels between drug arrests and online predator investigations.

"Do we have to redefine the act?" he asked. "There no longer is an act. It's not illegal to chat with children — so now we're arresting people who show an interest in meeting children, which is not illegal either."

Hurley said the most common charge applied following these investigations — use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime — makes his point. No sex crime ever occurred, he said. The men arrested are charged for what police believed their intentions to be.

"We tend to lump all people with an interest in children into one group," he said. "We've widened the net to include people who may not have done anything wrong."

Intentions are what Weiner says his investigations are all about.

"These guys show up with all the stuff they say they will (during the online conversations) to commit these acts," he said. "The weapon of choice for them today is not the park or the school but the computer."