Just look at what happened to Courtney Bisbee.
There's been a proliferation of such sites posting mug shots of those merely accused of crimes as petty as trespassing and littering, too, with offers to take the info down for a fee. 'Extortion' is the term that's always come to mind when I've come across them. Than you azcentral and Robert Anglen for exposing them.
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A
network of Arizona-based Internet companies is mining data from
sex-offender sites maintained by law-enforcement agencies and using it
to demand money and harass those who complain or refuse to pay.
RELATED CONTENT: Offendix.com critics speak out
State
and national registries are set up to provide information on where the
most serious sex offenders are living and warn that the information
cannot be used to threaten, harass or intimidate offenders.
But
sex offenders and others profiled by the Arizona companies accuse their
operators, in a civil lawsuit and elsewhere, of running an extortion
racket by demanding up to $499 for removing names, criminal histories,
photographs, addresses, phone numbers and other personal data from their
non-government sites.
They accuse operators of posting inaccurate or old information and using the threat of exposure as a sex offender as leverage.
Operators of SORArchives.com, Offendex.com and Onlinedetective.com
did not take down individual profiles after payments were made and
launched online harassment campaigns against those who balked at
financial demands or filed complaints, an eight-month Call 12 for Action
investigation found.
Call
12 found the websites list individuals as sex offenders who no longer
are required to register and whose names have been removed from state
databases. Among the hundreds of thousands of names that appear, the
websites include names and addresses of people who never have been
arrested or convicted of a sex crime.
The
Internet-savvy operators ensure that anyone in their databases can be
found easily on a Google search. They have prominently profiled specific
individuals, published their home and e-mail addresses, posted
photographs of their relatives and copied their Facebook friends onto
the offender websites.
“Enjoy
the exposure you have created for yourself,” operators said in an
e-mail to an offender last year. “Unfortunately you took (your) family
with you.”
Internet
searches are ubiquitous today for screening and verifying everything
from financial applications to resumes. If someone’s name pops up on a
sex-offender database, it could affect their ability to get a job, a
loan or even a date.
Court
filings, computer searches, corporation records and interviews show the
two operators of the websites are Chuck Rodrick, 51, and Brent
Oesterblad, 52, longtime Valley residents who for the past decade have
operated a series of Web-based businesses in Maricopa County. They both
have felony convictions on fraud-related charges.
Rodrick and Oesterblad refused to discuss the websites and denied ownership.
Those
who challenged Rodrick and Oesterblad said the interactions frequently
turned ugly, with intimidating calls, vitriolic e-mails and threats of
lawsuits.
“I
feel degraded, humiliated, harassed and intimidated,” said Gordon
Grainger of Montana, a former registered sex offender who said he has
tried to get his name removed from the websites. “I won’t lie. It’s
gotten to the point where I have had suicidal thoughts.”
Grainger in January recorded two calls with Rodrick and posted them on various websites, including YouTube.
“We
have a soft spot for innocent people. We take them (profiles) down all
of the time when people can prove they are innocent. ... In return, what
are you going to do for us?” Rodrick said in one call. “I don’t care if
you guys have an opinion on Offendex or call it extortion or whatever.”
Rodrick
acknowledged that he was being recorded in the call. He maintained that
the websites are legal and insisted that no attorney general in the
United States would take action against the websites.
SORArchives,
Offendex and Onlinedetective were built using data from official state
sex-offender registries, according to a Silicon Valley computer engineer
who said Rodrick paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to design
and update the websites.
State
police and departments of correction generally are responsible for
maintaining official registries, which can include an offender’s name,
photograph, physical characteristics, addresses and description of the
crime. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, which operates the
state’s official registry, azsexoffender.org, states on the site that “misuse of this information may result in criminal prosecution.”
People
named on the sites say they have submitted complaints with attorneys
general in Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Virginia and Washington and with
the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal agencies.
No law-enforcement agency has taken any court action against Rodrick and Oesterblad over the websites, records show.
In
March, California lawyer Janice Belucci filed a federal civil lawsuit
in Los Angeles on behalf of 10 people. The lawsuit accuses Rodrick and
Oesterblad of racketeering and extortion.
Lawyers representing the website operators this month responded with a motion to dismiss the case for a lack of jurisdiction.
Belucci said law enforcement has failed to act despite ample evidence.
“Most people don’t care about sex offenders,” she said. “They are the victims in all of this.”
Contacting operators directly isn’t easy; no business licenses seen for SORArchives, Offendex
SORArchives and Offendex share the same slogan: “Find sex offenders in your area ... Before they find you!”
But
operators of the websites can’t be easily identified or located.
SORArchives and Offendex do not list on their sites any phone numbers,
addresses or contact information beyond online e-mail forms.
Contact
information sent via e-mails to site users directs them to a phone
number and voice mail registered in Canada. Payments are made through
electronic third parties to unnamed recipients at the websites.
The
websites in May were registered in Australia with domain names provided
by a company that operates worldwide. But Internet protocol address
searches and court records indicate that servers hosting the websites
are located in Tempe.
The websites use PayPal and a credit-card billing system to collect money from users.
Offendex
stated last year that it operated within the laws of Arizona. A similar
notice on the Onlinedetective website states that any disputes will be
resolved in a Maricopa County court.
Extensive
record searches show SORArchives and Offendex operated without business
licenses or any corporation filings. Any corporation or
limited-liability company doing business in the state is required by law
to register with the Arizona Corporation Commission. Trade names and
partnerships must be registered with the secretary of state. Some cities
also require business licenses.
Days
after Call 12 attempted to contact Rodrick and Oesterbald in December,
the Offendex website was taken down. Users were redirected to Onlinedetective.com.
Onlinedetective
is a registered corporation. Records show Rodrick and Oesterblad were
equal partners when they launched Onlinedetective in 2002. In 2011,
Rodrick’s name was removed from company documents, leaving Oesterblad
and his wife, Sarah Shea, as the only managers listed on the documents.
The
websites are often changed, from links to terms of service to text. For
instance, Onlinedetective recently directed users to SORArchives, but
the link later was removed.
SORArchives
nearly mirrors the former Offendex site. The websites share the same
visual elements, graphics, link capabilities and nearly identical terms
of service.
SORArchives
says records for 750,000 active sex offenders are available for online
searches. The site promises to protect families from the menace of sex
offenders in their neighborhoods by providing access to present and past
criminal records.
Sex
offenders are sometimes removed from state registries because their
crimes have been reclassified and no longer are considered serious
enough to require registration. Some offenders are required to register
only with law enforcement, and their names would not appear on public
registries.
Others have done their time and have sought court orders to remove their names from state and national registries.
“Even
if the sex offender is not required to register that does not mean the
record itself goes away,” SORArchive states. “To help stop the threat,
you must know how to locate the offenders.”
Customers say they pay for removal of names but information remains online
If offenders want their name and profiles off the website, SORArchives tells them they will have to pay.
But
payment is no guarantee of removal, according to the website. And some
of those who have paid say their names and profiles remain online.
Offendex offered users two options: Pay $79 for a review of a records-removal request or $499 for a no-questions-asked removal.
SORArchives
used the same options until earlier this month. The website now offers a
free review service that can take up to eight weeks, an expedited
removal for $79 and an “instant removal” with no price listed.
“We
are not under any legal obligation to remove any valid public record or
to be in sync with any official sex offender registry,” SORArchives
states.
E-mails, court records and interviews show that $79 removal requests can end in denials and users are told to pay $499.
An e-mail obtained by Call 12 from a sex offender who paid $79 to have his record removed from the site shows what transpires.
A
woman identified as Sarah Reynolds in customer service wrote that the
offender’s records could not be removed because “circumstances do not
meet the Offendex.com criteria for removal.”
Reynolds included a contact number in British Columbia, Canada.
Reynolds
provides no explanation of the Offendex criteria. But she writes: “If
it is imperative to you that you be removed, perhaps a payment plan can
be arranged.”
Key operators have worked together for years on Internet-related businesses
Interviews, computer searches, e-mails, court records and the websites themselves point to Rodrick andOesterblad
as playing leading roles in the operation. That includes creating the
websites, making legal demands, updating records, negotiating payments,
sending e-mails to offenders and posting profiles.
Rodrick
and Oesterblad refused to discuss the websites. By phone or in person,
both denied ownership and declined to provide details about their roles
with the websites. Their lawyers also did not respond to phone calls.
Rodrick and Oesterblad have worked together for a decade on various Internet-related business, records and interviews show.
Rodrick,
who has lived in Tempe, Chandler, Cave Creek and Phoenix, pleaded
guilty in 1993 to selling illegal cable-television descramblers with
fraudulent intent. In 1996, he was sued in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for his
role in an Alaskan Ponzi scheme that cost investors as much as $50
million. A final judgment of $58,900 was entered against him. Court
records do not show any payments were made.
Oesterblad
has lived for years in Paradise Valley. He pleaded guilty in 1992 for
his part in a frequent-flier scam operated out of his family’s Phoenix
travel agency and spent 10 months in a federal prison.
In
a phone message to Call 12 in December, Oesterblad said he was simply
contracted to work for Offendex and had no part in the company.
Rodrick, however, described Oesterblad’s role in the Montana phone calls recorded in January.
“Brent’s
not the owner. Brent does legal research and Brent does communication,”
Rodrick said. “I’m on the development side. I’m not going to disclose
ownership.”
The
name, address and phone number of Rodrick’s estranged wife, Lois Flynn,
appear on SORArchives, Offendex and Onlinedetective. Flynn, who has
been involved in a protracted divorce case with Rodrick, never has been
convicted of a crime.
Rodrick
and his girlfriend, Phoenix court reporter Traci Heisig, sued Flynn in
January, accusing her of defamation. They also sued Flynn’s employer and
several others. Flynn and other defendants have denied the allegations.
They have filed separate counterclaims, calling the defamation suit
harassment. Oesterblad is named in two of the counterclaims.
The cases are ongoing, with multiple motions back and forth.
A posting on Offendex in 2012 accused Flynn of working to defame the website. Onlinedetective also posted the accusations.
“The
ex wife of one of the administrators of this website seem to be on a
crusade to smear the name of this website,” according to a post, which
goes on to accuse her of infidelity and alcohol abuse. “This pretty much
speaks for itself. We will post more information as we find time.”
Flynn, the mother of Rodrick’s two children, denies abusing alcohol or having an extramarital affair.
Some people named on the sites are not listed on law-enforcement registries
Not all of the people listed on SORArchives and Offendex are registered sex offenders. Some have no criminal records.
Yet
their names, addresses and other personal information continue to be
profiled on the sex-offender websites for anyone with an Internet
connection to view.
In
Virginia, a man last year stumbled onto the Offendex profile of his
recently deceased brother-in-law. He said he contacted the website in an
effort to spare his sister and her two young daughters from learning
about the 18-year-old conviction. But when he said he balked at paying,
the websites posted his name and e-mail. They also posted his sister’s
address, her name and the names of her children, in-laws and other
relatives.
In
Washington, a man found his mug shot from an arrest in 1997 now
attached to details of a minor sex offense that occurred nearly 30 years
earlier in another state. The man said he never was required to
register as a sex offender and his name was not included on any official
registries. He contacted Offendex and said operators threatened to
publish his name throughout the Internet.
In
Louisiana, a schoolteacher bought a house owned by a convicted sex
offender whose name was removed from all official registries in 2009.
Even after being notified that the offender no longer lived in the house
and being paid to remove the profile, Offendex and SORArchives
continued publishing the woman’s address as if the sex offender still
resided there.
“These
guys terrorize people all over the country,” said Melvin Dominguez, 58,
the Louisiana offender who owned the house. “They hurt innocent
people.”
Men and women across the country have filed consumer complaints about Offendex, SORArchives and Onlinedetective.
“I
have an expunged record that is not available to anyone, but if you
Google my name, low and behold, it shows up on this website,” a person
identified as crsmolti wrote on the website Sueeasy.com.
“This
has caused severe stress knowing Offendex has put this information on
the internet after eight years of being off any sex offender registry,”
shawnyc36 wrote on the same site. “I have a background check for a job
in progress, I’m so nervous they are going to Google my name.”
The
10 plaintiffs in the California racketeering suit against Rodrick and
Oesterblad say the websites targeted them as part of an extortion
scheme.
Lawyers
for the website operators said in a court filing this month that the
websites are “passive” because operators don’t initiate contact with
offenders. They are asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit,
saying it should not have been filed in California.
“The
Websites do not specifically target California or its residents. The
Websites simply archive public records of convicted sex offenders in all
50 states,” lawyers wrote. “The information on the Websites is provided
to the public nationwide free of charge. No goods or services are
actually sold on the Websites.”
Eight
plaintiffs say they paid fees to have their profiles and personal
information removed, but the websites continued publishing the
information anyway.
Two
plaintiffs say they have no records as sex offenders. They are
relatives of former registered sex offenders who said their names and
photographs were posted on the sex-offender websites.
Three
plaintiffs were convicted of sex offenses but were not required to
register as sex offenders. Two plaintiffs once had to register but are
no longer required to do so. The final three are registered sex
offenders.
A
federal judge in the case acknowledged the potential damage of being
publicly labeled a sex offender and last month ordered to keep secret
the identities of plaintiffs. The judge said their physical safety is at
stake.
The plaintiffs, who are from California, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, are identified by numbers and John Does.
In an interview last month, John Doe 8 said he is not a convicted sex offender.
“But for Offendex, this record wouldn’t exist,” said the man, who is an entertainment-industry consultant in Oregon.
In
2006, John Doe 8 said he pleaded no contest in Oregon to possessing a
sexually related image of a child. He was sentenced to two years of
probation for a non-registered offense. In 2011, he was arrested in
Virginia and accused of possessing marijuana in Virginia.
John
Doe 8 said Offendex and SORArchives used his mug shot from the Virginia
arrest and the conviction in Oregon to create a new profile calling him
a sex offender.
He
was unaware of the profile until November, when a friend of his
girlfriend alerted her to it. John Doe 8 said he requested a review to
remove his profile and was told he didn’t qualify. He complained.
Offendex and SORArchives responded by beefing up his profile, he said.
“The
repercussions of this are far worse than the actual sentence,” he said,
adding that the stigma of being portrayed as a sex offender already has
cost him a relationship and nearly a job.
Those who try to get their names removed can face harassment online
Those
who have challenged the websites say they and their families have been
subjected to harassment that includes having personal phone numbers,
addresses and photographs of family and friends published on the
sex-offender websites.
They
say operators made threatening phone calls, sent disturbing e-mails and
scraped Facebook profiles to copy the information onto the sites.
Grainger,
36, of Great Falls, Mont., said his family has been under siege for
almost a year. He said Rodrick and Oesterblad threatened him in a series
of e-mails and sent him a photograph of his own infant son to punctuate
their demands.
“Since you like Facebook so much ... we have added your 65 friends to your page on Offendex,” a Nov. 9
e-mail reads. “We will release your record to five more search engines
plus a few other ‘special spots’ that you do not want to be.”
A
review of the e-mails shows they were sent from a variety of addresses,
including Rodrick’s Gmail account. Some of the e-mails contain
salutations from the Offendex “support team,” “support staff” or “legal
research team.” Others are signed by “Brent” or “Brent Marshal,” which
is Oesterblad’s middle name.
In the calls Grainger recorded in January, Rodrick said he decides who gets profiled on the websites.
“I
have control over whether or not a record (goes) up or down,” Rodrick
said. “I do have that control, and I do have the ability to make that
happen.”
Grainger
was convicted in 1995 at age 19 for having sex with his 15-year-old
girlfriend. His arrest in Michigan came after he stole her father’s gun
and car and attempted to run away with her. He was sentenced to 10 years
in prison.
Grainger
said he carefully rebuilt his life since being released from prison,
moving to Montana, enrolling in paralegal classes and starting a family.
In 2011, based on changes in Michigan law, Grainger was no longer
required to register as a sex offender and his name was removed from
official databases.
He said he was shocked to discover his Offendex profile last year and fought with operators to have it removed.
Operators accused Grainger of harassment for posting comments about Offendex on YouTube and other websites.
Grainger
acknowledged firing off angry, obscenity-laced e-mails to Rodrick and
Oesterblad and referring to them in derogatory terms in Web posts.
“They have threatened me and my family. Of course I am mad,” he said. “I hate these guys for what they are doing.”
Grainger
and his wife are named in Rodrick’s defamation suit. Rodrick also sued a
Seattle man named Adam Galvez and his mother for defamation.
Galvez, 38, is a sex offender who in 1996 pleaded guilty to child molestation.
Galvez
was 22 and working as a store security guard when he said he befriended
a 13-year-old boy who had significant family problems and was living on
the streets. He said the boy later accused him of abuse. Galvez was
sentenced to 18 months in prison.
After
his release, Galvez said he was arrested on several alcohol-related
offenses, including driving under the influence. Galvez said he was
required to register publicly as a sex offender for about six months
before his name was removed from public databases.
By
2012, Galvez said he was on the road to recovery when he found his
profile on Offendex. Like so many others, he said, he contacted the
website thinking he could get his name removed.
Operators
of Offendex posted pictures of Galvez’s mother and brother on the
sex-offender websites along with their addresses. They also put his
Facebook friends on the sites. In e-mails, website operators accused him
in the most stark and graphic terms of preying on young boys.
Galvez fought back, launching his own investigation of Offendex and posting his findings on a website he called offendextortion.com.
The
website quickly became an Internet gathering place for Offendex
critics. Offenders and others exchanged information and stories of
harassment; they discussed legal strategies, ways to expose the sites
and get law enforcement involved. Galvez created links on the site for
Rodrick and Oesterblad, whom he identified by name. He also identified
Rodrick’s girlfriend.
Galvez, who is one of the plaintiffs in the federal suit, spoke to Call 12 months before the suit was filed.
“They have been bullying and harassing people,” Galvez said. “If it helps other people, I’m willing to fight them.”
Grainger
and Galvez deny defaming Rodrick, and both have filed counterclaims
accusing him of harassment. Galvez added Oesterblad to his claims.
Rodrick has filed motions disputing the men’s claims.
Designer describes websites’ evolution: ‘It’s nothing like what it was in the beginning’
The
sex-offender websites were built using data copied directly from
official law-enforcement websites, according to the software developer
and computer engineer who developed the sites.
Eric
Souhrada, a former Tempe software developer and computer engineer now
living in California, said he designed the sex-offender websites as
subscription services, not as a vehicle to target offenders with demands
for money.
“People
would pay monthly subscriptions to get alerts,” Souhrada said in a
phone interview last month from his Silicon Valley home. “It was set up
to be a collection of data. That’s what it was intended to be.”
Financial
records obtained by Call 12 show Rodrick paid Souhrada more than
$230,000 since 2005. Souhrada confirmed the amount and said he was hired
by Rodrick to develop and maintain a variety of websites, including the
sex-offender sites.
Souhrada,
the president of Deadbunny Enterprises, holds degrees in mathematics
and political science from Arizona State University. He said he has
known Rodrick since 1997.
Souhrada
said he designed the sex-offender sites from data he scraped from
official registries maintained by law-enforcement agencies across the
country. He said he reformatted the data into his own templates that
Rodrick used for websites such as Offendex.
“I wrote the code for it,” he said. “It was OK. We were not doing anything illegal.”
One
of the first websites Souhrada said he set up for Rodrick was Web
Express, which did business as Onlinedetective in 2001. He also designed
a website called Dunebuggy.com, which Rodrick used to market high-end dune buggies.
Souhrada
said Rodrick had a talent for coming up with profitable websites, even
when the ideas sounded as if they could not make money.
Souhrada
said he copied verbatim from state registries when he set up the
sex-offender sites. He said he did not want anybody to be able to accuse
operators of exercising editorial control over the information from
public databases.
Souhrada
said he assumed Rodrick owned the websites. He said Rodrick was his
only contact; Rodrick described the work he wanted done, discussed its
applications and arranged payments to a business account.
Souhrada said he occasionally worked with Oesterblad on the websites, but most of his contact was with Rodrick.
Souhrada said the websites have evolved over the years, and he wondered if the original concept proved to be unprofitable.
“It’s nothing like what it was in the beginning,” he said.
Complaints filed with FBI, attorneys general in 5 states; as yet, no action taken
Complaints
about Offendex and the other websites have been filed with local, state
and federal law-enforcement agencies for almost a year.
Offenders,
their relatives and others who say they have been targeted by the
websites say officials won’t act. They say agencies take reports, then
decline to open investigations or refer cases elsewhere.
Complaints
have been submitted with the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the
Internet Crime Complaint Center, which works with the FBI to refer
Internet criminal cases to various agencies.
One offender said federal prosecutors in Virginia told him they would not open a case.
Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia would comment. FBI officials in Arizona also declined comment.
Complaints have also been submitted with attorneys general in at least five states, including Arizona.
“They
don’t take action because of who we are: sex offenders,” said Grainger,
who lodged complaints with state and federal authorities in Montana and
Arizona. “But we deserve equal protection under the law.”
Officials
with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which maintains Arizona’s
official online database, said they were unaware of Offendex and the
other websites until being contacted by Call 12 for Action late last
year.
Spokesman
Bart Graves said at the time officers studied the website and concluded
data published on Offendex wasn’t coming from the state’s website, but
they were interested in collecting more information about Offendex. He
said officers were consulting with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office
and would turn over their findings for further investigation.
At
least five offenders interviewed by Call 12 for Action said they
submitted separate complaints to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.
The
Virginia Attorney General’s Office told one complainant that it lacked
jurisdiction and said “it would be prudent” to contact the Arizona
attorney general.
Officials
with the Montana Department of Justice said they, too, have sent
information and complaints about the websites to the Arizona attorney
general.
“The
last we heard, they have not been able to resolve any complaints they
have on file,” Montana DOJ spokesman John Barnes said. “We did contact
the (Federal Trade Commission) and made sure they were aware of what was
going on.”
A
spokesman for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said no complaints
about Offendex could be located. Documents obtained by Call 12 for
Action show some complaints were routed to the attorney general’s
criminal division and community outreach and education division.
Community division director Kathleen Winn said in e-mails that she had been contacted by at least two people about Offendex.
“This
is being referred to the Tempe Police Department. Someone will contact
you,” Winn wrote in an e-mail response to a complainant in February. “I
apologize it was not in a timeframe you had anticipated.”
She provided no explanation for referring the case to Tempe.
Tempe
police officials said this month the department has not received any
referrals regarding the case from the Attorney General’s Office.
In
the recorded phone calls, Rodrick said he is used to dealing with law
enforcement and that attorneys general will do little more than send out
letters before closing cases.
“The
attorney generals aren’t going to help you,” Rodrick said during one
call, adding later: “This is what we do. We are the Internet.”
Robert
Anglen and Veronica Sanchez lead the Call 12 for Action team, focused
on issues important to Arizona consumers. Contact the reporter at robert.anglen@
