Even the innocent pay price on ‘mugshot’ sites
While outlawed in Fla., sites still charging to remove pictures.
WEST PALM BEACH — Thomas Keesee has grown rich by publicly shaming others.
The 60-year-old West Palm Beach man is part-owner of Mugshots, a website that collects the names and booking photos of people who have been arrested, publishes that information online, then charges hundreds of dollars to remove the content, even in cases that are either dismissed or never filed.
Last week, Keesee and three other men connected to Mugshots got a taste of their own medicine.
Keesee was arrested May 16 by Florida Department of
Law Enforcement agents and is being held without bond at the Palm Beach County
Jail awaiting extradition to California, where he is being charged with extortion, money laundering and identity theft.
Prosecutors in California allege that Keesee and t he t hree other m en —
Sahar Sarid, Kishore Vidya
Bhavnanie, and David
Usdan — broke state law by charging 175 people more than $64,000 to remove their arrest information from Mugmandates a fine of $1,000 shots. per day and court costs for
Arrest data and booking those websites that solicit photos are public record removal fees if they don’t and can be accessed by anydelete mugshots within 10 one through the websites of days of receiving written law-enforcement agencies requests from people whose and then published online or cases have been expunged. in print. But 13 states, includ- Expungement refers to ing Florida, outlaw sites like the process of sealing arrest Mugshots from charging peoand conviction records and ple to remove arrest inforallows a person to claim mation. Lauderdale-based attorney legally that he or she was
According to the arrest who represents several cli- never charged or convicted warrant, California author- ents who say they’ve been of a crime. ities estimate Mugshots victimized by Mugshots and The new state law may earned more than $2.4 milsimilar websites. “It’s one not help thousands of others lion from thousands of victhing to put up these book- who say they’ve been victimtims nationwide between ing photos. It’s another to ized by predatory websites. 2014 and 2017. charge money to take them Take the case of Floyd, a
Mugshots, which contin- down.” 46-year-old Broward County ues to operate following the resident who says he was arrest of its owners, is only stopped by a deputy while one of many online operariding his bicycle in 2013 and tions using similar tactics, taken into custody because authorities say. there was allegedly a war
“It’s really a nefarirant for his arrest. ous way to make money,” Floyd, who asked that his said David DiPietro, a Fort last name not be used in this Soon to be illegal
Starting July 1, charging people to remove their arrest information will be illegal in Florida.
A state law passed last year and signed by Gov. Rick Scott story, said he was connected to the warrant in error, and court documents show the case was dismissed by the State Attorney’s Office two days after his arrest.
But Floyd’s problems were only beginning.
Although he didn’t realize it at first, Floyd’s arrest information was posted by Mugshots and other sites. It was only in retrospect that he realized that a string of lost job opportunities and questions from acquaintances asking if he ever had Googled himself were tied to the details of his arrest being published online.
Floyd said he called Mugshots and protested, pointing out that his case had been quickly dismissed and asking that his booking photo be taken down.
No dice, came the reply, unless Floyd was willing to pay a $399 removal charge.
“I didn’t have the money and I was wary about paying because I started noticing there were several other websites that were doing the same thing,” Floyd P. said. “So if I paid Mugshots, it would just pop up in other places. That was a no-win battle for me, so I just left it alone.”
Floyd’s booking information remains on Mugshots, causing great distress and concern about his future.
Mugshots has an estimated 30 million booking photos available on its website. Keesee’s own mugshot is not shown on his website.
“They’re really trying to ruin people’s lives,” Floyd said. “For these people, it’s entertainment.”
‘Paying the ransom’
Websites that profit by posting arrest information began emerging around 2010, thanks to Craig Robert Wiggen Jr., a Flagler Beach man and an ex-con who founded the website florida.arrests.
Using Florida’s liberal public records laws and taking advantage of Google’s search algorithms, Wiggen stumbled on a profitable concept since copycatted by dozens of others.
The companies digitally scrape arrest information and photos from law-enforcement websites, then post them almost immediately. The practice is legal, and website owners, when they can be found, argue that their work is protected by the First Amendment.
The rogue gallery of mugshots includes those arrested and later convicted of heinous crimes as well as those who were never charged, had their cases dismissed or were found not guilty.
Even the innocent must pay.
DiPietro said he filed a lawsuit last year against Mugshots after they refused to remove the booking photo of a Broward County medical professional, who had a charge of grand theft dismissed by the State Attorney’s Office.
Companies like Mugshots list their business addresses outside the U.S. in places like Nevis, West Indies, and Belize, making their owners difficult to identify and often impossible to serve in lawsuits.
DiPietro said his client gave up trying to sue Mugshots and paid more than $3,000 to have the information removed.
“We ended up just paying the ransom,” DiPietro said.
Many media companies, including The Palm Beach Post, have published mugshots in arrest stories or in photo galleries on their websites for at least a decade. The Post will edit stories and remove them from Google searches if a person shows that charges were either dropped or never filed. The Post does not charge people to have information taken down from its websites.
DiPietro said a national statute is needed to deal with sites such as Mugshots, but he thinks the arrest of Keesee and his fellow defendants will send a strong message and “ultimately, I see all these websites coming down.”
“Criminal prosecution is the best way to clean up this type of activity,” DiPietro said. “Civil lawsuits are just civil lawsuits. These companies are making a lot of money and they can hire lawyers to fight back.
“Now that it’s a criminal offense, you just report it to the authorities and let them bring it down. Eventually, it’s going to be outlawed conduct, and it’s going to fade away.”
The companies digitally scrape arrest information and photos from law-enforcement websites, then post them almost immediately. The practice is legal, and website owners, when they can be found, argue that their work is protected by the First Amendment. The rogue gallery of mugshots includes those arrested and later convicted of heinous crimes as well as those people who were never charged, had their cases dismissed or were found not guilty.