Tag Archives: cyber stalkers

Inland Empire: Temecula Cyberstalker Gets 5 Years In Prison

STAFF REPORTS

Temecula – The owner of a Temecula art gallery who stalked, harassed and attempted to extort as much as $300,000 from art world professionals was sentenced to 60 months in federal prison.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, Jason White, 43, of Temecula, who pleaded guilty in March to two counts of federal stalking, was sentenced on Mon., Sept. 29, by United States District Judge, Stephen V. Wilson.

During the hearing, Judge Wilson called White’s crimes “horrendous” and “very disturbing.”

White was arrested by the FBI on Feb. 12 after engaging in a six-month stalking and extortion scheme that targeted art world professionals with whom he had had business relationships. When those business relationships ended, White posted derogatory information about his former associates on websites he had created, and then used threatening emails to demand hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for taking the websites down. White repeatedly made extortionate demands through harassing text messages and emails, and when his demands were not met, he threatened violence against the victims’ families, including their children.

“Given the ominous, angry and relentless nature of the messages, the victims had a reasonable fear that the defendant planned to hunt down and kill their spouses and children,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed with the court. “Indeed, this case is a parent’s worst nightmare that will likely haunt the victims for the rest of their lives because they will always be fearful that defendant may find their children and make good on his threats.”

In one part of the scheme, White targeted his former employer, an art publisher, as well as White’s supervisor at the art publisher’s company. After creating derogatory websites in the art publisher’s name, White allegedly sent threatening text messages to the art publisher, the publisher’s son, and his former supervisor. In a text message to his former supervisor, he threatened to find her family and make her pay with “fear, anguish and pain.” On several occasions, White obtained pictures of her child and sent pictures of the child to the victim with comments such as, “It will be very unfortunate if something was to happen to him.”

According to the government’s sentencing position papers, White’s “conduct also demonstrates a disturbing and escalating pattern of stalking conduct, particularly since he committed these crimes less than one year after a restraining order was filed against him by another former employer for identical cyber stalking and extortion conduct. As defendant intended, his stalking crimes traumatized his victims.”

During the sentencing hearing, two of the victims spoke, telling Judge Wilson how they felt terrorized by the barrage of threatening emails and texts that White sent them.

The case against White was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Art Crime Team.

EASTVALE: Protecting your Children From Cyber Predators

BY: JENNIFER MADRIGAL and LEAFF Member Det. Syvock

LEAFF Law Enforcement and Fire Protection

L.E.A.F.F. Eastvale

With the rise of internet and app use among a younger and younger generation, the cases of child molestation cases has also continued to rise. Sadly, the age of children being victimized continues to get younger and younger as pedophiles continue to get braver and bolder in their pursuits. Many parents think that they are monitoring their children well enough to avoid any of these incidences from happening to “their child”, but the sad reality is that even the most vigilant parents can miss the signs.

First and foremost, there are some key words that define the “lingo” of the child pornography world: Collectors– Collect images of child pornography.  Collectors can and will transition to chatters.  Chatters– Chatters will surf the social media and gaming sites (Xbox, Play station, etc…) known to be used by children.  These chatters are looking for children to communicate with and the topics will transition to discussions involving sexual contact.  Chatters can and will become Travelers. Travelers– Adults that will meet with children for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities.  Travelers could be from the town/city next door or may travel across country to meet children.  Travelers can and will become manufacturers of child pornography as they will document their meetings in videos and photographs. Manufacturers– Manufacturers will produce images and videos depicting children being exploited (Child Pornography) to share with other likeminded individuals via the internet or through mailings.

According to Detective David Sycock, who is part of the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, once contact between the predator and the child has been established, the grooming process begins. These predators are able to spend more time with our children daily, through the internet, than a predator who has face to face access. They will often shower the victim with attention. This gives the child a sense that the predator cares about them because they are so patient and they listen so intently. The relationship will then progress to a relationship with an “us/them” mentality as it relates to parents or authority, which helps establish the groundwork for abuse. The predator will encourage the child to share secrets and try and earn their trust. The predator needs to make sure that the child will feel “safe” with them to ensure that the relationship and the eventual face to face meeting will remain a secret. Unfortunately, this is where sexual topics are gradually introduced in an effort to gauge the child’s reaction and willingness to move forward towards the face to face meeting. The predator will at this point encourage the child to share images with them. Images will usually be innocuous at first, but will transition into more graphic images involving sexual images. Some predators will even send the victim a camera or other gifts to take pictures with. The ultimate goal of the predator is always a face to face encounter, “Meeting In Real Life” (MIRL), where the physical sexual abuse will begin.

Once the abuse occurs, how do we as parents discover our child has been victimized? Usually, parents stumble onto graphic text messages, pictures, videos, etc. between the child and the predator. The child will often be uncooperative as the predator has spent so much time grooming them to believe that the predator is the good person and the parents are the bad people. Again, the “Us vs. Them” mentality is continued and encouraged by the predator, as they often have already coached them on how to respond. The difficulties with parenting the child will continue to get worse as the child will withdrawal further as they are confronted by parents. Parents may notice the child becoming more of a “loner” by separating themselves from family and social events, and problems in school will often increase as grades and attendance decrease.

So what can we do to make sure our children don’t become victims? First, be involved and vigilant. Know your way around the computer, smart phones, video games, etc. Do not give your children devices that you yourself do not know how to operate. Second, set house rules and stay firm. Have times and perimeters for internet use. Monitor their time and what sites they are on, and set boundaries on where children are allowed to use their internet devices. As a parent, you own the device and thus should be actively monitoring and checking your children’s devices for inappropriate content.

If you have any questions or think your child may be a victim please call your local law enforcement agency.