Prime-time sex crimes meet opposition

[Kenny Guido]

America's Most Wanted On Long Island

Prime-time sex crimes meet opposition

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO
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There was no need to adjust your television set. A beauty queen actually teamed up with Suffolk police and a popular television show to arrest would-be perverts.

"You've seen her in a bikini," said the home page of the Fox network's "America's Most Wanted" program, below a glamour shot of Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson. "You've seen her in an evening gown. You've never seen her like this."


Now the strange marriage of celebrity, law enforcement and broadcast journalism, which were on display on Saturday night's broadcast, have left some observers wondering if the growing trend of online sex stings as a form of entertainment has gone too far.

"I think the whole thing is a disgrace and an embarrassment to law enforcement," said Richard Klein, a criminal law professor at Touro Law Center in Huntington. "To set people up and the way that it's done for ratings on TV shows, it's just really disgraceful, a waste of time and shameful in so many ways."

Publicity pros and cons

Critics of the growing trend of highly-publicized Internet sex stings point out numerous potential pitfalls, such as entrapment issues and the public demonization of suspects who are presumed innocent under the law. But advocates say the operations are valuable law enforcement tools that deter predators, stopping them before they harm actual victims. They say the more publicity, the better.

"You can see how much attention it got," said Det. Sgt. John Cowie of the Suffolk Police Computer Crimes Unit, who led the investigation that enlisted the help of Nelson and "America's Most Wanted."

Although proponents of the televised busts say there is little room for sympathy when someone is caught red-handed, critics say a five-minute TV segment cannot tell the whole story.

Defense attorney John Powers Jr. offers his client, Robert Accomando, as an example. Accomando, 20, of West Islip, was one of the four men arrested after showing up at a Bay Shore house to meet Miss America, who posed as a 13-year-old girl.

The program's Web site features a mug shot of Accomando, who they say gave "a few crude Webcam shows to Lauren" and later got "the surprise of his life." What hasn't been mentioned by producers, Powers said, is that Accamondo suffers from neurofibromatosis, "a serious physical disorder which also has serious psychiatric manifestations."

Powers described his client as "a 14-year-old in a 20-year-old's body" and said Accomando is incapable of forming the intent to commit any crime.

"He showed up on his bicycle," said Powers, who added that Accomando's family has been "devastated" by the publicity. "He was coaxed into showing up at a home purely for entertainment value of some show on the Fox network. That's taking advantage of an individual who doesn't know any better."

But show officials say there is more to it than entertainment.

"This wasn't a publicity stunt," said "America's Most Wanted" producer Sedg Tourison. He said the goal in working with Nelson was to have her educate others.

The show documented an April 20 sting aimed at nabbing online predators. Nelson became involved because of her interest in Internet safety, which stemmed from an incident when, at the age of 13, she was inappropriately contacted online.

Using photos of Nelson as a child, police lured men who they said solicited sex. In some cases, Nelson spoke on the phone with suspects to arrange meetings. When they arrived, Nelson, made to look far younger than her 20 years, welcomed them.

"I stood on the porch and they would come walking up the driveway. And I would greet them and motion to them," Nelson told Newsday. "And they followed me inside the house."

Four men who came to the house were arrested. Another seven, who police say engaged in sexually explicit online chats, were arrested five days later. All pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted dissemination of indecent materials to minors, a felony.

Fox heavily promoted the program through a news conference and media appearances and scheduled it during television's sweeps ratings period.

Dateline NBC's "To Catch a Predator" series, which features similar online predator busts, has become a ratings hit, with host Chris Hansen conducting cringe-worthy interviews with those caught in the trap and squirming for a way out. So successful has the series been that local copycat operations have popped up all over the country.

 

[Kenny Guido]

But critics say the main purpose of the televised stings is not to fight crime, but rather to grab viewers with crass displays of public humiliation. For many targets, being portrayed on television as a pedophile is far worse than any criminal punishment, they say. Texas prosecutor Louis Conradt Jr. committed suicide in November when news crews surrounded his house as he was about to be arrested for soliciting sex from a minor online.


"It's all being done without any judicial decision-making," said David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. "It's fair to ask the question of whether we want our justice system to get involved in such severe sanctions and stigmas against someone who still hasn't had their day in court."

Like other critics, Powers questioned whether stings like the one that ensnared his client are catching the real bad guys. None of the 11 men arrested in the Suffolk sting had prior sex offenses, and nine of them had never been arrested at all, records show.

"The police department, with the aid of Miss America, John Walsh and the Fox network, created this crime where it didn't exist," Powers said.

Supporters of the Internet stings say police do nothing more than go online, pose as children and wait for the predators to come to them.

Laura Ahearn, director of Parents for Megan's Law, a sexual abuse prevention group, said law enforcement has a responsibility to keep up with "21st-century" child predators who use the Internet to "groom" their future victims.

"We don't know how many of them have hands-on victims, but I would bet there are enough of them for us to continue making an investment in doing these proactive online sweeps," Ahearn said.

A 2001 study by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children found that two-thirds of Internet sex crime offenders were found to possess child pornography. Law enforcement officials said online predators are often later linked to sexual assault cases.

"There's no question that the people that we are catching are predators," said Stephen Treglia, chief of the technology crimes unit for the Nassau district attorney's office. "These are people who have harmed people in the past and certainly would again."

But the University of New Hampshire's Finkelhor said that although publicizing busts as a deterrent could be justified, sex-sting reality TV may be serving now mostly to provoke "mob emotions."

Still, Nelson said she would do it again in a heartbeat. "It's fueled my fire," she said. "And it's definitely solidified the reason I'm championing this cause as Miss America."

 

[Kenny Guido]

 

[Kenny Guido]

Miss America won't testify in sex predator sting

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO
[email protected]

April 30, 2007, 11:18 PM EDT

Here she won't be -- Miss America.

The case against at least one -- and probably more -- of the 11 men arrested in Suffolk with the help of the beauty queen and the television show "America's Most Wanted" is in jeopardy because representatives for Miss America 2007 Lauren Nelson have told prosecutors she won't return to Long Island to testify, said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota.


Without Nelson available as a star witness, every case she actively participated in during the undercover police sex sting may be up in the air, said Spota. He called the police operation well-intended but "nothing more than a publicity stunt."

"Given the fact that we have now determined that Miss America was actually speaking to one of those arrested, I have instructed prosecutors not to present any more cases to the grand jury until we can determine her involvement," said Spota, who added that police didn't tell his office about the April 20 operation until the afternoon before it went down.

Referring to one case that already has been presented to a grand jury, Spota said, "That case, in my view, could be compromised."

Deer Park defense attorney John Powers said Spota is likely referring to his client, Robert Accomando of West Islip, whose case was presented to a grand jury Monday. Powers said he commended Spota's honesty and called police's exclusion of prosecutors in their operation "disgraceful."

Spota said he has information that a high-ranking police official instructed computer crimes officers not to inform Spota's office, because he had previously opposed a similar televised sex sting in 2006.

Police did not address Spota's concerns directly.

"Raising awareness of the potential dangers lurking on the Internet is a top priority of the Suffolk County Police Department," said police spokesman Tim Motz. "We will continue to use any means at our disposal to keep our kids safe from sexual predators and focus the public's attention on protecting our children."

Spota's comments came a day after a Newsday story spotlighted the debate over the propriety of the televised sting.

As featured Saturday night on the popular Fox program, Nelson, 20, of Oklahoma, posed as a 13-year-old girl in an undercover police operation to lure Internet child predators. In addition to using a photo of her as a young teenager as bait, police also had Nelson chat with suspects online, arrange meetings with them on the phone and greet four suspects who arrived at the Bay Shore "sting house."

"Why would we need Miss America to be contacting a sexual predator?" Spota said. "We never would have approved of that."

Although Spota and defense attorneys said police "decoys" are often the most important witnesses in online sex crimes cases, in an interview Friday Nelson said she was never told that she might have to return to Suffolk to testify. "There's not been talk of that," Nelson said.

Det. Sgt. John Cowie of Suffolk's computer crimes unit said police made it clear to Nelson "that she's part of an undercover investigation and there may be more expected of her down the road." As to the specific issue of Nelson being required to return to Suffolk and testify, Cowie said, "That's between her and the D.A.'s office."

"I don't think anybody in the police department seriously thought of the ramifications here," said Spota. "Had they consulted with our office, we would have told them that she's potentially a witness in the case."

Officials with the Miss America Organization did not return several calls for comment Monday. Spota said his office was trying to contact Nelson Monday, but was unable to do so. "Her agents have told us that she's not coming back to testify," Spota said.

Several attorneys representing the 11 men arrested in the sting said they don't intend to give Nelson a choice. They said they plan to subpoena Nelson, and if she failed to appear at any court date, she could be held in contempt and face criminal charges herself.

"You've now made Miss America a witness," said attorney Michael Brown, of Central Islip, who represents Ronald Stahl, 43, of Holbrook -- one of the 11 men nabbed in the sting.

"If Miss America is going to be saying that, 'This is the person I had a chat with,' I absolutely have the right to cross-examine her,' " said Brown, who said the possible complications are just one of the many reasons police usually avoid recruiting civilians -- much less celebrities -- to assist in busts.

"They use undercover detectives," Brown said. "They don't use a pretty blonde."

 

[Kenny Guido]

DA: Miss America will make herself available to testify

BY ALFONSO A. CASTILLO
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May 2, 2007, 12:01 AM EDT

Miss America is now ready and willing to tell the truth and nothing but the truth if called to testify in any of the Suffolk Internet child sex busts in which she participated, her representatives told Suffolk prosecutors Tuesday.

The apparent capitulation from the Miss America Organization came a day after District Attorney Thomas Spota said he was informed that the reigning beauty queen, Lauren Nelson, "is not coming back to testify."


A pageant spokeswoman who spoke on the condition she not be named said Tuesday that Nelson, 20, "has expressed an interest and a willingness to fully cooperate with law enforcement officials, including by testifying."

Nelson was traveling Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

Pageant officials said Nelson "always planned" to continue to work with law enforcement, and denied ever telling prosecutors that she would not testify. But Spota said Tuesday he knows what he heard.

"This afternoon, I received a telephone call from the attorney for the Miss America Organization to assure me that despite the fact that we were originally told her schedule would prevent her from doing so, Ms. Nelson now fully understands her legal obligations," Spota said in a statement Tuesday.

Dari Schwartz, chief of the district attorney's child abuse and domestic violence bureau, said a representative for Nelson told her in a conversation last week that "she was booked for the next 90 days" and that her loaded schedule would be a problem.

"That's not an indication that she's not willing to testify," the pageant spokeswoman said Tuesday. "She will do what she has to do."

Nelson, of Oklahoma, took part in an April 20 Suffolk computer crimes unit operation, in which police used a photo of her as a teenager as bait to lure online sex predators. In online chats and phone calls to arrange meetings, Nelson posed as a minor, and greeted suspects as they arrived at a Bay Shore "sting house."

Pageant officials confirmed Tuesday that police never notified Nelson that she might be called as a witness. Police have said they told Nelson during the operation only that further involvement might be required.

The operation was featured on the Fox television show "America's Most Wanted" on Saturday. A statement published on the program's Web site said producers stand by the operation, which Spota criticized in Tuesday's Newsday as a "publicity stunt."

"It's unfortunate that a newspaper reporter, for reasons only he knows, has chosen to distract attention from the issue we highlighted in our show of April 28: Sexual predators are lurking online, and we as a society must do all that we can to stop them and to protect our children," the statement said. "We believe that our work speaks for itself, and we believe in letting the legal system take its course."