Posted by
statesrights on Thursday, May 08, 2008 12:00:00 AM
JUDGE: Perverted Justice Founder Solicited child molestation
-John Cook, Radar Investigates
The pudgy, pasty, and creepy founder of Perverted Justice, the online vigilante group that NBC News pays to lure in gap-toothed perverts for Dateline NBC's
"To Catch a Predator," narrowly escaped a taste of his own medicine
last week. On August 10, a judge in Oglethorpe County, Georgia, issued
a previously unreported order finding that "there is probable cause to
believe that Xavier Von Erck solicited ... child molestation, statutory rape, or attempted child molestation or attempted statutory rape."
The case stems from
a rather novel legal theory pursued by Robert E. White, whose son Robert Gerald White was arrested for attempted child molestation and attempted statutory rape after a Dateline
sting in Harris County, Georgia, last year. The elder White thinks that
Von Erck, by posing as a 15-year-old girl during online chats with his
son, actually solicited the younger White into showing up at the Dateline house for sex. And in Georgia, solicitation is a crime.
Robert E. White's attorney, Gary Gerrard, went to a
Georgia state judge last month seeking a warrant for Von Erck's arrest
for criminal solicitation, and the judge, by and large, agreed: He
issued an order stating that "there is probable cause to believe that
Xavier Von Erck communicated with Robert Gerald White with intent that
Robert Gerald White would engage in conduct constituting a felony." In
other words, Von Erck wanted the younger White to break the law and
tried to get him to do so, behavior that is usually considered criminal
in Georgia. But the judge declined to issue the warrant, finding that
there was no way the younger White could have actually committed the
crime that Von Erck was soliciting him to commit—there was, after all,
no 15-year-old girl to molest.
But it might not be that simple. Gerrard and other sources familiar
with Georgia criminal law say the judge plainly got it wrong.
Georgia
law clearly states that "it is no defense to a prosecution for criminal
solicitation that the person solicited could not be guilty of the crime
solicited." So if Von Erck were prosecuted for solicitation, he
wouldn't be able to argue that he knew all along that no actual
15-year-old girl was going to be molested.
"The law says the impossibility of committing the crime is not a defense," says Gerrard.
What's more, White was charged with attempted molestation, a crime that he actually committed by showing up at the Dateline house. And that crime, the judge's order says, was solicited by Von Erck.
"It seems clear here that Von Erck did intend for this man to commit a felony," said Robert D. Leonard II, a Georgia criminal defense attorney who maintains a blog on Georgia law. "The felony would be attempted child molestation."
Gerrard says he is considering his options and may appeal the order.
In a statement, NBC said, "We believe our newsgathering and
activities in connection with "To Catch a Predator" fully complied with
Georgia law."
E-mailed for a response, Von Erck replied, "Thanks for contacting us
for comment. You're
just a rather scummy fellow who writes for a tabloid rag. Other than
being told that you're a scummy hack who resembles a stalker more than
a journalist, we don't have any comment for you on this issue or any
other issue."
Woa! Did you see this coming? Sadly, I did. I have a theory that I have seen proven RIGHT many times in my life. More often than not those who go to fanatical extremes for misguided moral crusades are doing so to cloak their own demons. They do this to mislead the public and for those who feel guilty, do it to mislead themselves.
Of the dozens of guys I've met in my life who expressed an all out hatred and malice towards homosexuality, two out of three of them had later asked me to have sex with them. (I'm a guy).
I have seen the same true with people who are just as holy about pedophiles. One dude up my street likes to prank call local sex offenders. I tested my theory and without surprise found his scruffy face on the state sex offender list.
And who can forget ole Congressman Folly. The leading crusader and champion against child abuse who resigned his seat in congress following aligations that he was soliciting sex online with a page-boy.
So without surprise, I found this article about the founder of Perverted Justice. What I have trouble with, however, is how the media has kept this charge against him so hush hush. Then again, MSNBC didn't have a lot to say about the man who killed himself when Perverted Justice came knocking on his door.
MSNBC does not want to admit to the fact that their Catch a Predator is getting people killed. Luring men to ruin their whole lives is good for ratings, luring them to shoot themselves may upset those precious ratings. They just as much do not want people to know that the group who is responsible for their show's ratings and air time is led by a suspected pedophile himself! Its pretty sad when the press censures issues and needed infromation from the public (Ron Paul). Its a really sad day when the media censures from us their own nasty issues!
In the article I posted here I thought it was funny, and I laughed, that this Von Erck dude defends himself by saying that no actual crime happened because he really wasn't a fifteen year old. Ummmmm....that is exackly what is so wrong about the whole Perverted Justice idea!
Most Americans like myself are all for neat little tactics to catch predators. Yet, most Americans like myself are now starting to catch on that to Catch a Predator is seriously wrong. How can you charge a man with child molestation or even soliciting when he was actually soliciting a middle aged fat man?
Also, people are starting to learn the true extent of how low Perverted Justice will go to fish in mentally ill, haven't-been-laid-in a long time chat room low lifes. Those people with Perverted Justice for several hours instant message as many men out of the blue as possible. Then, for days on end these entrapers will speak to the entrapped as sexual and suggesting as possible, all but begging (and moaning) for the person to visit.
The argument can be made that these guys shouldn't travel to meet an underage girl. True that.
Yet, some of these guys, under normal circumstances would not go that far. I am positive some of them resist the requests and suggestions and pleas until their imagination gets ahold of them or they are just not strong enough to say no to the entrapper following repeated and insistant pressure.
The whole Dateline thing and Perverted Justice just seems gross and dirty.
Personally I think that Von Erck is not the only one at Perverted Justice who gets off acting like underage girls and getting sexually graphic about it. There is just something really wrong about men who sit at their computers and role play as a 15 year old nymph sex addict with hundreds of males across the country!
But Chris Hansen gets payed.
Is Perverted Justice a non-profit group set out to save all the children of the world? No. The founder himself, Von Erck racks up hundreds of hours role playing more sexually graphic than any actual underage girl would be (except in his imagination). And for his fun, Von Erck recieves 120,000 a year.
Perverted Justice indeed.