S. Florida website owners accused in extortion

Two South Florida men are among four people named Wednesday in arrest warrants related to an online website, Mugshots.com, which posts arrest records and booking photographs — and takes them down only for a fee.

Ever since the fall of 2013, Jesse T., of Sonoma County, CalMugshots.com if., has found it nearly impossible to land a job. He’s applied for construction, manufacturing, and electrical positions, with no luck. After nearly a year of unreturned calls and emails, his friend alerted him to a troubling Web page.

Was Jesse in prison, his friend asked, according to an arrest warrant, which did not give Jesse’s last name. When Jesse searched his own name in Google, the first result was a post on Mugshots.com, a website that mines publicly available arrest records from across the country. It indicated that Jesse had been arrested, and included his full name, address and the reason for his detention.

Jesse was, in fact, arrested in September 2013, but he was never charged with a crime. He was simply detained for 12 days and then released. But made no such distinction. Jesse became convinced that the post, which included his full name, address and the reason for his detention, had ruined his reputation, making it difficult to find a job or even start a romantic relationship.

He clicked on a link to a related site, unpublisharrest.com,