TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — Two Internet sites that make money by
posting millions of mug shots of people who’ve been arrested have
agreed to stop charging them to take down their photos as part of a
settlement in a federal lawsuit.
The lawsuit came about after a
number of complaints from people who said the websites were charging
hundreds of dollars to remove the mug shots even if the cases against
those arrested had been dropped.
The settlement in U.S. District
Court in Toledo doesn’t apply to all of the mug shot sites that can be
found online, just two — BustedMugshots.com and MugshotsOnline.com.
Similar
lawsuits have been filed in Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania while
legislators in Georgia and Utah have passed laws aimed at stopping the
sites from charging to remove arrest photos. Lawmakers in California are
considering a similar proposal.
But efforts to rein in the sites
have been complicated by questions about whether the attempts infringe
on First Amendment rights and the difficulty of tracking down who owns
the sites, some of which claim to originate from outside the country.
Some
operators say they’re performing a public service by providing
information about arrest records that can be found by parents and
neighbors without searching through court records.
Attorney Scott
Ciolek, who filed the lawsuit in Ohio, says the practice of charging a
fee to remove the mug shots amounts to extortion. Eliminating that part
of the business model will make it difficult for them to operate, he
said.
"That is the biggest victory right there," he said Tuesday. "We’ve taken away their
ability to profit."
The
settlement finalized in late December also calls for the owner of the
two sites to pay $7,500 and take down the photos of the three people who
brought the lawsuit in Ohio.
Joseph Centrich, an attorney for the
company that runs BustedMugshots.com and MugshotsOnline.com, said the
sites will continue to operate and post arrest and criminal records but
won’t charge to remove the images.
Citizens Information Associates
LLC of Austin, Texas, which runs the sites, already had decided in
October to stop billing people to get rid of the photos, he said.
Settling the suit will cost much less than continuing to fight it, Centrich said.
The
mug shot sites’ operator uses programs to easily collect information
from hundreds of police websites and post them online without verifying
whether the charges have been dropped or later dismissed.
Ciolek
said he has been contacted by hundreds of people who have said the
photos have made it tough to find work or have caused trouble even after
they’ve been hired.
One of his clients, Phillip Kaplan, of
Toledo, said he was asked during a job interview about a charge against
him that was later dismissed.
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