LINN COUNTY, Ore. — Cyber vigilantes don’t toe the line of law and order when it comes to cornering alleged child sex predators, and it often comes at the cost of whole cases for law enforcement.
Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan spoke with our news team Monday about its most recent run-ins with some of these groups and the impact on its investigations.
On March 11, a report came in to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office from social media personality Tim Johnson of People Vs. Preds — hand delivering 57-year-old Burl Hilburn to deputies after Hilburn had been allegedly communicating with who he believed to be an underage boy.
In reality, it was People vs. Preds.
The California-based investigator routinely corners alleged predators posting videos of arrests to their Facebook group.
But Linn County Sheriff Michelle Duncan tells us, while the cyber vigilante’s method may lead to an arrest, it could simultaneously reduce their office’s chance of a solid conviction against the predator.
“Some of these people engaged in this activity are trying to do a good thing and get rid of some of these child predators and get them off the street. The problem is when it comes to a point where the sensationalism and the worry about whether it makes social media or not trumps that of a proper investigation and arrest. You could compromise the investigation, and we can lose a case,” said Duncan.
The sheriff’s office typically starts investigations on child sex abuse cases through a tip from a victim, a family member of a victim, or through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
It then gathers information that will help beef up a case against that predator.
“One, identifying who the suspect and or victims are and then getting the data that is involved as evidence of the crime — text messages, photographs, all those kinds of communications that lead up to those predatory types of crimes,” said Duncan. “But we also have to be able to verify a lot of that information.”
That also includes phone numbers and dates which Duncan said People Vs. Preds slowed progress in gathering by not wanting to share communication records.
And because the group made Hilburn aware that he was caught, Duncan says, Hilburn had time between the revelation and her office finding — to get away with his crime.
“We were lucky that he didn’t destroy some evidence that we needed; you run that potential. Two, when we go into something not really understanding the full gambit of what actually is going on, it can make it a dangerous situation for the public,” she said. “Because these are pretty serious crimes, somebody may fight us or may endanger the rest of the public because they know what they’re being confronted with, and we show up not knowing the full story.”
Another problem, Duncan said, is that some vigilantes endanger the most vulnerable — which her office saw in a recent case involving a separate online investigative group.
“They decided it was a good idea to set up a child family member as basically bait. And even at the meet, [they] set this child family member out to meet with the suspect and then called us,” said Duncan. “Some of the activity they engage in prior to, if a police officer or a deputy were to engage in that same kind of activity, it would be considered entrapment.”
Lane County has also had run-ins of its own with the cyber investigators.
On April 3, the Lane County Sheriff’s Office was granted a nationwide arrest warrant for Andrew Page Bledsoe of Veneta who allegedly traveled to Portland to meet with a 13-year-old female but instead came face-to-face with the private group.
Bledsoe was captured in Caldwell, Idaho by Caldwell Police that same day.
The Lane County Sheriff’s Office says Bledsoe was extradited to the Lane County Jail shortly after his arrest. He was released on April 18th after posting bail.