S.J. Sheriff’s Office adopts new policy after coming under fire for blurring suspect’s photo
STOCKTON — The San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office has implemented a new policy to blur unrelated logos when posting arrestee booking photos online after officials admitted to doctoring a campaign slogan off the shirt of a man while he was being taken into custody during an undercover sex sting.
David Joseph Alanis was one of two dozen men arrested during the mid-April operation that was overseen by the Sheriff’s Office and the Lathrop and Manteca police departments.
Officers made 24 arrests during the sting, mostly of men trying to solicit sex from children under the age of 14. Authorities used social media to set traps and deputies pretended to be children to lure sexual predators into meeting them.
A photo of the 36-year-old man in handcuffs was soon published on the Lathrop Police Services Facebook page. At the time of his arrest, Alanis was wearing a “Ted Howze for Congress” shirt, which drew a reaction from the Turlock-based campaign.
Howze, a registered Republican and veterinarian, is running for the District 10 seat that is currently being held by Democrat Josh Harder.
According to local media reports, Howze’s campaign contacted the Sheriff’s Office to ask that the picture of Alanis be removed and replaced with a standard mugshot.
“They said, ‘Hey, look, we don’t know this person. We don’t know why they’re wearing our shirts, we can’t control that. We’d appreciate it if you didn’t associate our brand name with that person,’ “Sheriff Patrick Withrow told FOX40.
The decision was made to remove the logo on the shirt in its entirety. But eagle-eyed social media followers noticed the change, with some suggesting that the Sheriff’s Office, which is nonpartisan, was perhaps protecting a political candidate.
“In no way was the blurred logo of the shirt a political move,” Withrow said, admitting that doing so was a mistake. “The logo was not relevant to our investigation and this is why we typically use mugshots that focus on the facial features.”
On Thursday, department spokeswoman Andrea Lopez echoed Withrow’s remarks.
“No way was it a political move,” she said. “A shirt has nothing to do with the investigation. The whole reason for making contact with him was he was attempting to meet a 14-year-old minor for sex acts.”
Lopez explained that Alanis was the last arrest made that night and a normal booking photo was not immediately available in time when the Facebook post was created.
In the future, Withrow told local media outlets that his department will blur all logos, including brands, unless it can be used to describe a suspect in an active investigation. It wouldn’t have applied to Alanis as he was already wearing the shirt and was in custody.
In a statement, the candidate made it clear that Alanis had no affiliations with the campaign.
“Dr. Howze believes in a zero tolerance, one strike and you’re out policy for convicted sex offenders, including that individual who absolutely isn’t affiliated with our campaign as well as the rest of those caught due to good work of the San Joaquin County Sheriff ’s Office,” the statement read.
Alanis ended up accepting a plea deal with the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office. In exchange for pleading gulity, Alanis was sentenced to six months in the County Jail and will have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
Said Lopez: “What we care about is that he showed up to meet a 14-year-old for sex. Our main priority is getting a criminal off the streets and keeping the community safe."