Monday, May 31, 2010

Hey Petra, what ever happened with that lawsuit?

I was asked that just the other day.  I haven't thought about it for a while but I guess for the record, I should write a final blog about the whole experience.

As I tell this story, I will refer to the person who sued me as “This Person.”  I told my attorney that I would eventually write this blog.  He told me not to name any names and refer readers to other links for details.  That is why this blog is written in such a vague manner because that person is so crazy that if I call him/her by name, he/she will absolutely go out of his/her mind.  This person has brought my level of understanding regarding dishonesty, insanity, and greed to a new low.

Ok, here is the whole story, in my words, once and for all.

In 2006, I started an Internet activist group to fight child abuse.  In the fall of 2007, a fan of mine started to bother me constantly about This Person.  She kept saying that This Person was gathering sex offenders and doing some really bad stuff and that we, as a new activist group, should protest This Person's and this person’s associate's activities on the Internet.  I was trying to do other things, but she was relentless.  I think This Person was antagonizing this fan to get to me.  I was new to my cause, and whenever anyone is new to a cause he or she is angry and ready to do the “right thing” in the name of justice.  It is what I call being ‘immature to a cause.’  She finally wore me down and I started to investigate the situation.  I found out This Person, a Registered Sex Offender (RSO) along with a group of RSOs and their supporters were trying to counteract and protest against the sex offender’s registry, which was supported by our newly forming activist group and some of my associates who were older than I at this game.  In hindsight, I am not sure if it was a trap to get us all tangled into a lawsuit for money or not, but I was going to do what I morally felt obligated to do regardless of the consequences.

This group of RSOs was doing things that I truly believed were leaving children at risk and would make them vulnerable to sexual predators.  What I understood was that their first goal was to get 40 email accounts per person and jam up their local police agency's email accounts with false reports, so that when a real report, from a person in distress came through, it would get lost in the shuffle.  As far as I was concerned, if you mess with the cops protecting kids, that is a problem for all.  The next thing I observed was on This Person’s main web site, where This Person would instruct other RSOs on how to evade the sex offender registry by doing things like falsifying their personal information data and obstructing their fingerprint identification process by putting latex on their fingers prior to getting their prints taken. 

The sex offender registry is set up for a reason, and that is to keep track of these predators so that they cannot access our children.  The last time I checked, falsifying information you give to the police was a crime.  The last thing I saw was This Person's You Tube videos.  In one of This Person's videos, he/she very calmly and manipulatively sent a message out to mothers that if they report their male, sex offender partners who sexually abuse their children, they would be ostracized in their communities and that their children would be made fun of at school, etc.  I mean, DAMN!  It is hard enough to get these people to report these crimes.  We don't need someone trying to scare them out of doing it.  I felt that if a traumatized mother in this situation saw these videos she may NOT report the crimes going on in her home, and the children being molested would continue to be destroyed for the rest of their childhoods and for the rest of their lives, for that matter. 

RCW 9A.050 Reckless Endangerment:  A person is guilty of reckless endangerment when he or she recklessly engages in conduct that creates a substantial risk of death or serious physical injury to another person. (http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=9A.36.050)

I saw that This Person’s actions were a felony called Reckless Endangerment.  How does it apply to this case?  Well if an RSO is successful in evading the sex offender registry, then it leaves the children in their community vulnerable to child predators.  If This Person’s video instructions actually worked and a child continued to be assaulted, molested or raped, then This Person would have helped facilitate those crimes.  They needed to be stopped.  In my mind, This Person and their associates were putting kids at greater risk of kidnapping, molestation, rape, and murder.  When you help child predators, this is what they are capable of.  This situation also ties closely into a petition that I wrote called April’s Law that would make it illegal for sexual predators to compare notes online and help each other commit crimes against children.  If April’s Law were to actually become a law we would not have these problems. (http://petraluna.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2012-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&updated-max=2013-01-01T00:00:00-08:00&max-results=1) 
I suppose you can tell someone how to build a bomb on the internet, but they are the criminal if they do it and kill someone.  I felt that in this case, it was different because crimes against adults are different from crimes against children.  It is not a fair fight with kids.  They cannot defend themselves the way that you or I can.  There is a fine line between putting out information and conspiring to commit crime.  In my opinion, they were conspiring to commit crimes against children.  There were others posting blogs and information about This Person and I was getting in on it.  I live by “Evil prevails when good people do nothing” and I was not about to do nothing.

This all occurred shortly after my activist group, through activists protests, forced the closing down of a web site owned by a man known as the “Pedo King” who had thousands of pedophile followers online.  I guess we thought we were on a roll.  I started a web site devoted to exposing This Person and the dangerous messages he/she were putting out.  We found that This Person had 7 web sites and blogs.  Our activist protest job was to complain and let the hosting sites know what kind of information This Person was putting on their site and that This Person had criminal associations that could harm the reputations their Internet hosting companies.  Everything we said was true.  These people observed the same thing we did and willingly closed This Person's accounts on their sites.  I even sent this person a message on our web site stating that they should shut down their pedophile supporter web sites and blogs because, if not, eventually our protests would have the same effect.  The only sites we could not get to cooperate were hosted overseas where, in some cases, they support these types of activities.  All of the people and groups protesting collectively succeeded in shutting down 5 of This Person’s web sites/blogs.  Then our web site got hit with a DOS (Denial of Service) attack and was shut down by a computer hacker.  (Internet child predators are excellent hackers, by the way.)  That was also the time when I started to receive my first death threats.  At that point, I knew that This Person was starting to gain influence with the big boys of the pedophile world by their ability to hack us down.  I always knew that very powerful people were child molesters and supported RSOs and their rights, but at the time, I was too naïve to think that they would help This Person.

Well they did help This Person all the way to the national media.  I got a call one day from the producer of a “National News Program” (that will also remain nameless.)  The lady told me that they were doing a piece on child abuse and wanted me to fly to New York to interview me since I seemed like a good advocate for my cause.  I didn’t know it was an ambush by RSO sympathizers.  So, like a dumb ass I got on the plane.  I got to the TV studio and the first thing I told the newscaster (also nameless) interviewing me was that I did I DID NOT want to talk about This Person because they had small children.  He did not respect my wish.  I came there to talk about the cause only.  Anyway, he railroaded me into talking about it.  I did not know that they would hack the interview by cutting and pasting answers to questions that they had asked me.  Man, was a sitting duck!  For example, he said that This Person was receiving death threats.  I told him that I was threatened all of the time.  They conveniently edited that out.  After I said that, he shook his head as if to say “Damn that was not the answer that I needed to make you look bad.” At the end of the interview, he told me that I did really well.  Funny, I felt like I had just lived through a Taliban interrogation session, but I did not care.  I figured that no publicity was bad publicity.  In time I was proven to be right.  I did not find out till later that many thought the company who was named in the suit along with me, Perverted Justice, from another TV show, was an arch rival of the show that had interviewed me.  I also found out that the show that interviewed me, in many people’s opinion and on many occasions, appeared sympathetic to RSOs.  Xavier the man that runs P.J. has always been cordial with me.  He is My Hero!  I could kick myself for not consulting with him before I left for New York.

When the show aired, the whole segment was about This Person and not about my work for the cause, as they originally told me it would be.  They even allowed This Person to read an email on TV that I never sent, in an attempt to make it look like I sent it.  I never contacted this person once in my entire life.  I only protested his/her actions on our web site.  They also showed a funny computer generated image of This Person in a KKK outfit that I never created or published!  The show could never prove that I ever did either of those things.  It was lying, media business as usual.  Even the people that created the image were like, “damn we didn’t even get credit for it.”  If you find the image yourself, you will find it on another person’s blog with another person name on it.  I did do a comedic parody about This Person mimicking This Person's YouTube videos because This Person was a public figure for their cause.  This Person stood up in a legislative committee and spoke for their fellow RSOs, as one of their representatives, in their advocacy community.  This Person also claimed to be a popular article writer for rock stars.  The show even stated that This Person was on the sex offender registry.  So “our” saying they were an RSO on the web site, was also true.  It is 100% percent legal to make jokes about public figures.  Ask any comedian.  Then, they showed This Person with a gun saying they had to protect themselves from me and my activist group.  Finally, the newscaster accused me of posting This Person’s address.  The show could not prove that I did that, because I never did, but others that I knew of did.  Besides, SEX OFFENDER’S ADDRESSES ARE PUBLIC RECORD!

The day after the show aired the show’s web site blog blew up with my fans trying to defend my honor.  One fan wrote that I never sent This Person an email, so the email message This Person read on the taping was probably written by This Person.  There were over one hundred thirty comments arguing and debating the show.  Unbelievably, every time one of my people tried to write something positive about me, the show’s web site masters/editors would delete the comments.  Is everyone that works on that show an RSO or sex offender supporter?  It makes me wonder what is on that newscaster's hard drive.  I knew that it was illegal for a registered sex offender to own a gun, so after the show, I called the police in This Person's state and they said that they would handle the situation.  My fans and supporters even started a boycott protesting the show and posted blogs and bulletins all over the Internet protesting the shows slander fest. (http://imposteralert.blogspot.com/)

The very next week, I learned even more.  First, I was contacted by another fellow advocate and they told me that they had a similar thing happen to them.  The media totally trashed her too.  Second, a minister friend of mine who was also in the entertainment business, told me to never go in front of the national media without an attorney or an inside person to protect me, who can guarantee that they will portray me in a positive light.  I learned the hard way that when you take on child predators, you need to remember that they have friends in high places.  Third, a friend of mine said “Yes, he tried to make you look bad but you held your own and didn’t let him get you down.”  Deep down, I believe her.

I spoke with an attorney after the show, who instructed me that it was an illegal media practice to tell someone that they were going to be interviewed about one thing and then change the topic at the interview.  If I had known that I was being interviewed about This Person, I would have declined the interview or I would have been properly prepared.  This Person knew that they were being interviewed about me!  This seemingly reputable news organization was not so reputable after all.  Then again, most of them lie.  Isn’t that common knowledge?  I could have sued the network for slander but when I investigated the last person to sue that show, they did not get far.  Besides does anyone ever see a recant?  I am not the lawsuit type and was not up for the fight.  I let it go.  One day, all of those scum bags will meet God and his justice will be more severe than anything that we could bring upon them.

My feedback from the show was amazingly positive.  Another strange thing that I found out that happened was the night of the show, most of the south eastern coast of the US was hit by an electrical storm and their power was out for two hours.  They missed the whole thing.  Besides, that damn interview brought my fame to whole new level.  After the show, I had family members call to congratulate me and my web sites received half a million hits in one week.  The outpour of support was overwhelming.  I guess the power of God and good prevailed over evil, in this case.  This TV network still has that clip posted.  I chuckle every time I see it.  I couldn’t pay for that kind of publicity.  Damn, I should send This Person a thank-you note.  I hope they never take it down.  One fan even told me that it has made me a legend within my cause.  Go figure!

Then the lawsuit came.  I was going to ditch it, but others in my group were located, so I felt obligated to stand in front of them.  Despite the fact that our web site and its content were created by an advocate overseas, I claimed copyright to all information posted.  I was sued along with Perverted Justice, a blogging community called Absolute Zero and others who protested This Person.  OMG This Person accused me and my people of slander, defamation even R.I.C.O. RICO?  Right, like I am some kind of mob boss or something.  It was a JOKE SUIT!  On our web site, we simply took the information that This Person posted on their web site and explained that it was dangerous to children to have these messages out there on the Internet.  It was all true and it was my first amendment right to express my opinion about the matter.  At the time, I felt that it was my moral obligation to protect kids from these monsters.  I found out a couple of months into that a few vigilante types did send This Person threatening emails claiming that they were part of my crew.  I wrote a formal apology to This Person for it, even though I was not responsible for what other people did.  I also wrote that I was not sorry for what I thought I needed to do on my web site, in the name of child safety.

In my first “Motion to Dismiss” the case, I told the judge about the whole Reckless Endangerment thing and I admitted to everything that I was responsible for.  I believed what I did was right and I was going to stand behind it.  I eventually hired a fabulous attorney that crushed the lawsuit.  The judge called it a “frivolous” law suit and a “waste of the court’s time.”  In the end, the case was “Dismissed with Prejudice.”  By the looks of This Person's claim, they were obviously out for money.

Needless to say, the group surrounding This Person seems to have disappeared and so has their media support.  I did a Google search for the case the other day.  It seems the legal blogging sites considered this case to be one that has set a precedent in Internet law.  There are almost three Google listing pages of blogs and information on this case.  Some seem confused by the judge’s decision, but they must remember that JUST BECAUSE SOME ONE ACCUSES YOU OF SOMETHING DOES NOT MEAN IT'S TRUE.  I hope that my fans will go to these legal blogger web sites and leave a link to this blog in their comments or send them a message about it.  Maybe some truth may enlighten them, since they are hearing only one side of the story.  This Person’s supporters and my usual tired old haters called me estranged, but that year I had a new nonprofit organization that was succeeding despite the odds in the economy, and I released a new CD.  If that is estranged, I need the word to be redefined to me.  Hey, how do you know when an RSO is lying? …………Right!  When their lips are moving and their fingers are typing and typing and typing.

The last I heard, This Person was trying to file another suit.  Suing people for a living must be tough business.  I am totally over all of it.  I still get death threats, but now I have friends in law enforcement.  They don’t even scare me anymore.  Now when it happens, I let the FBI handle it.  Fighting against organized crime types that exploit children can be dangerous business, but I move around a lot.  Most of the time, I do not know where I will be next.  Thanks to technology, I can do my business from anywhere in the world.  If someone wants a piece of me they have to get in line!  I learned that haters are good.  If you have no haters, you are not fighting effectively for your cause.  Just the other day I said to my volunteer that I have not heard from any haters lately.  Maybe I need to work harder.

I eventually came to the conclusion that activism may shut down a few web sites here and there, but the next day, ten more will be published.  People tell me that the pedophiles are scared of me and that most people think that I am a ruthless rebel, but for a great cause.  I suppose that I will always be a warrior at heart.  Today, I aim to put child predators out of business the smart way.  Instead of brawn and activism, I am going to use my brain. 

The bottom line is, if I had done something criminal, I would be in jail and if I were wrong, This Person’s law suit and appeal would not have been dismissed, PERIOD!  Everything I did and said was based on facts that could not be denied.  The scary part is that I think that This Person actually believed his/her own lies.  I don’t think that anyone could have woven a tale that twisted without being a little bit nuts.  Stronger laws need to be in place to protect people from frivolous and malicious lawsuits.  It seems that in the U.S., anyone can make up anything and sue over it.  In hindsight, if I had to do it over again, I probably would.

How do I feel now?  Well, I learned a lot.  I would rather have lived serving my Creator and standing up to evil than sitting back and letting it prevail.  The media can kiss my ass.  I never needed them before, and no one trusts them anyway.  I will always be an underground rock star.  My loved ones and my supporters worldwide know what I did was right and they are the ONLY ones that matter.  You know…this story, with some embellishments, could be a great episode for Law and Order's Special Victims’ Unit show.  As a matter of fact, a few years after this case was settled, they did an episode that that was eerily similar to my case.  I hope we were an inspiration.  Real life is always stranger than fiction.  But don’t listen to me, look into it and make your own judgment.  


For more information on this story, go to jankruska.blogspot.com.  

No comments: