ASPC-Lewis: Another Murder in "The Promised Land": Homicide of Gordon Lee (UPDATE)

UPDATE July 9, 2014

It's my understanding, from more than one source, that Gordon Lee was strangled to death in the ASPC-Lewis Bachman shower by three other prisoners, who then dragged him back to his cell, dressed him and put him in bed. Staff allegedly slept through the murder happening 15 feet away from them, and didn't do their 4am count. He was found dead the next day. I dont know why tyey killed him - there are plenty of more horrible pedophiles in Protective Custody, which is what the Bachman yard he was killed on is. PC has become an increasingly dangerous place these days.

According to my sources,  Lee was assaulted a couple of weeks before this attack, and told a nurse what happened to him but she failed to report it to anyone. Its unclear whether or not he also formally applied for additional protection after that - the investigation, if conducted honestly, should show his protective custody requests (many prisoners need to PC up from Protective Custody yards like Bachman because of drug debts or repeated victimization, so that wouldnt be unusual for him to request). 

I believe that Wendy Halloran at Channel 12/KPNX is on the job trying to get records, so I'll be tuning in to them for follow-up.

peggy plews 7/9/14

From original POST (7/7/14 6:53PM) 

This man was murdered on ASPC-Lewis/Bachman, the same yard Alex Clark was just killed on. Seems like Protective Custody (AKA "the Promised Land" by the guys in the process of getting there) is as dangerous as the rest of the prison system these days. That's a big warning sign, Arizona. 

Think the Governor is paying attention yet? Maybe she notices, finally - the problem is that she still just doesn't care. This guy was in for child molestation, anyway, so no one will care that he's been murdered. He's one of the few who get long sentences who fessed up, interestingly - his plea was apparently not to avoid dying in prison - usually these long sentences are reserved for those who deny their guilt, like the truly innocent convicted at trial.  About 8-15% of sex offenders, by at least one prominent exoneration study, are likely to be innocent.

Gordon Lee's plea deal pretty much guaranteed he would never again be free, in fact - and maybe he felt he shouldn't be. You'd be surprised how many men who perpetrate these kinds of crimes against children are remorseful and want only to not hurt anyone again. Some mutilate themselves, and many commit suicide to protect the world from the monsters they fear they have become. Some even beg their judges to lock them away forever, castrate, or execute them. Many of them know what it's like to be violated, as survivors of childhood sexual abuse themselves; they never wished to become what they abhorred. Gordon Lee may have been a  sick human being to do what he did, but at least he didn't make the victim and her family go through a trial, or call her a liar in court. He owned his crimes against that child, when so few people ever do. There must have been some humanity in him somewhere.

Condolences, by the way, to anyone who cared for this man. Thoughts go out to his victim as well, who will likely relieve certain feelings all over again and have unexpected ones as well, in light of this news...  

(Remainder of post EDITED out - it was all speculation inviting people to contact me)

If anyone has any additional information about this homicide or this mans life, please contact me. He had no known close friends or family contacts outside of prison.


Reach me at 480-580-6807 arizonaprisonwatch@gmail.com.

MCSO Deaths in Custody: the homicides of John Klatt and Douglas Walker.

As some folks out there are well aware, cops and prison guards often collaborate with gang leaders to set up people they want to see shut up or executed  - often by celling them with a likely assailant/killer, then looking the other way long enough for the deed to be done. 

Last week a prisoner was killed in a case I think is very much related to the murder of an accused child predator, John Klatt, in MCSO's jail in January by similar means - except this time, I think the intended victim is the one who survived the confrontation.  

In the January killing, it looks like the MCSO placed Klatt in minimum security with a ton of child molestation charges against him - an obvious attempt to have him executed by other prisoners before trial. 20 yo. Nike Black likely did the deed under order of one of the gangs, leaving him no choice but to kill the guy and be the hero, or or die as a coward himself. All the gangs police and punish the members of their own race in prison, whether or not those prisoners are gang members. That kid had a fresh charge that would have forced him to either seek protective custody in prison or do the gang's dirty work. The gang and yard leaders usually tell guys with domestic violence charges (or any offense against a woman) that they can only clear their own name by taking out some prisoner whose crime is worse than their own. What would most guys in similar shoes choose - and how much of a real choice is that, anyway? The MCSO helped force Black into that position, too, by celling him with Klatt.

The community has a lot to do with these extra-judicial execution of prisoners, as well - just look at the comments after this news article about the first of these two killings. Friends and family of both suspect and victim are there, and lots of people are giving the killer props for a job well done. For those of you who think accused pedophiles deserve to be executed, do you also think their killers deserve to have their lives destroyed as well? Because that's part of the collateral damage of extra-judicial executions and vigilantism - someone else then has to be punished for doing that job. Your champion, Nike Black's life will now be spent in prison and most likely shortened by violence and trauma, heroin addiction, or Hepatitis C (which most prisoners in this state contract during their incarceration...). In the meantime, you will all forget his noble sacrifice and he will become like all the other faceless, dehumanized prisoners you like to know are suffering.
 

Arpaio insisted in January that nothing could have been done to prevent Klatt's killing (How about segregating your sex offenders and child molesters from the rest of the population, as the AZ DOC does?) I think they have the right to be safe in custody, be they pre-trial or post-conviction. For those to whom guilt and innocence matters in prisoner rights cases, you're wrong. Let one be abused, and all are at risk - justifying punishments above and beyond those already sanctioned by the court, like rape of child predators, puts everyone in prison at greater risk, even the "good guys". But you should also be aware that up to 15% of convicted sex offenders may actually be innocent. What might the innocence rate be among those who have simply been accused? Sadly, all are condemned as soon as the news of their charges hits the media. Look at Courtney Bisbee.

So now we come to the current killing - a convicted prisoner awaiting sentencing on a violent crime who fears for his own safety is celled with an accused (and confessed) seriously mentally ill child killer awaiting trial, also fearing for his safety. If I was Walker's family's attorney, I'd look closely at Arpaio's refusal to take responsibility for re-visiting policies around celling people with crimes the rest of the prisoner population would find repugnant as the very reason that Walker ended up dead, even if Ward claims self-defense. As I observed earlier, the public was so pleased that the victim of the January attack was an accused pedophile that the MCSO wouldn't have felt much pressure to keep any other child predator in their custody safe from similar treatment. They were outright encouraged to set it up, in fact. It was ordained by that decision to cell those two together that one of the two parties would leave in a body bag - that was a reasonably forseeable event after the January homicide of John Klatt. That spells major liability.


In this more recent homicide,  I wouldn't be surprised if Walker was celled with Ward by folks at the MCSO wagering on whether or not he would kill him. Walker did time before and was on his way back to the joint - I guarantee the gangs would have put a green light on Ward to "discipline" him for the way he killed his 12 year old younger brother; his celly would be the most likely person they'd order to do it, regardless of whether or not the guy was in a gang. If Walker didn't follow those orders he'd be hitting the prison gates as a target himself in a short two weeks - he was expressing fear for his safety as it was, according to this report. I think everyone just underestimated Ward's determination to stay alive, and his capacity for fighting back.

Really, all of these men's families need to sue, with Arpaio's name at the top of the list. MCSO complicity will likely not be proven in criminal court, of course - the investigators handling these cases will never even try to hold officers or Arpaio accountable in their reports. Only the prisoners will appear to be the violent ones in all this - that's consistent with the way the good Sheriff Joe implements justice in the community, too: he subverts it and ducks responsibility every chance he can.

I'm sure I'll have more to say about this case down the road, as more is learned about what community-based psychiatric help, if any, Ward and his family got before he killed his brother. For now, though, I think the real story is about the proclivity of law enforcement officers to act as judges, juries and executioners (or their accomplices); moreover, the willingness of their adoring public to accept it. 

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Phoenix man accused of killing brother now accused of killing cellmate

Vianka Villa, The Republic |

azcentral.com  

 April 4, 2014

A Maricopa County inmate charged in the fatal stabbing of his 12-year-old brother in Phoenix now stands accused of killing his cellmate in a frenzied attack on Wednesday night.

Andrew Ward, 27, was arrested early Thursday on suspicion of killing Douglas William Walker, who was awaiting sentencing on an armed robbery conviction, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's officials said Walker was found "beaten, stabbed with a golf pencil and smeared with peanut butter over his head." He was discovered at about 7:30 p.m. when inmates notified detention officers on a security walk of a fight inside the cell.

Phoenix fire paramedics pronounced Walker dead on scene. Paramedics also determined that a plastic bag had been placed in Walker's nose and throat and obstructed his breathing.

Ward reportedly admitted to a play-by-play of the attack in an interview with detectives and told investigators that he had "no regrets," according to a sheriff's statement.

Ward relayed that he had cut Walker's throat with a plastic playing card, stabbed him in the eyes and throat with a golf pencil and finished the assault by stuffing a plastic bag down Walker's throat, according to a sheriff's statement.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Chris Hegstrom said Ward has been re-classifiedd and housed by himself in the Fourth Avenue Jail.

Both Ward and Walker were placed in segregated custody in the county jail system after each told jail administrators they feared for their safety, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Ward was arrested March 12 on suspicion of stabbing and killing his 12-year-old brother in a north Phoenix home last month, and pleaded not guilty to the allegations in a brief court hearing.

Walker pleaded guilty to armed robbery charges last month and was due to be sentenced, and likely transferred to the Department of Corrections, on April 11.

In September 2013 Walker and an accomplice robbed a man in a McDonald's parking lot on Indian School, threatening him with a knife and an Airsoft gun, a type of replica toy gun that fires plastic BB's, according to court documents.

Walker and his accomplice demanded money from the man and took his iPhone, which they later tried to sell after they fled the scene, court documents show. He was charged with armed robbery.


It is the second murder Ward has been accused of in the past three weeks.

Police said Ward called 911 on March 12 from a convenience store and reported he had stabbed someone at a house off 35th Avenue south of Deer Valley Road.

Officers found Austin Tapia with multiple and fatal stab wounds when they arrived at the home at about 5:30 p.m.

Ward had blood on his clothing and was believed to be carrying a knife in his pants pocket when he was taken into custody at the convenience store, said Sgt. Steve Martos, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Police said Ward was alone with his brother, whose mother and two sisters were out to dinner.

Austin had decided to stay home.

Detectives said that when they asked Ward why he killed his brother he told them, "Honestly, I just felt like killing."

Court records suggest Ward struggled with drugs and alcohol.

In filing the probable-cause statement, police suggested Ward may be an addict and mentally ill and had asked to "go to (a) mental hospital" instead of jail when he called police.

The report said Ward's family reported that he suffered from depression and had a history of domestic violence in the home.

The family also said Ward had threatened them in the past and that his siblings had called the police on him before.

Ward's previous convictions included DUI, assault, marijuana possession and resisting arrest, according to court records.

Incarceration is Violence: snapshots from ASPC-EYMAN/Meadows.

I recently took AZ DOC Director Chuck Ryan to task about sending the sex offenders to Red Rock to decrease the over-crowding on those units before the other medium security yards where race riots are breaking out, simply because I so seldom hear about violence coming out of places like ASPC-EYMAN/Meadows. I also accused him of making a big deal of "routine" staff assaults of late in order to justify continuing to build his totally unnecessary $50 million Supermax prison at Lewis complex. I stand corrected, now, sorry to say, in light of what has recently happened. Besides, no assault is "routine" to the person who is the victim of one. I know, having survived quite a bit of violence in my life myself.

I've been hearing from employees and former employees of the AZ DOC in the wake of the sexual assault of a teacher on the Meadows unit at ASPC-Eyman this week- they are livid. There's some contention over what "fully-staffed" means. Some officers seem to feel as if not only is Meadows under-staffed, this teacher never should have ended up alone in a room with these particular prisoners. Meadows is the unit designated for housing about 1100 medium security sex offenders, about 330 of whom appear to be in "temporary" beds. That means the yard is a bit full. 

The opening of Red Rock didn't help relieve pressure on staff and prisoners at Meadows much, unfortunately, though I don't know how directly that would have impacted this situation with the teacher's assault. It appears they moved prisoners from Cook to Red Rock first, as that was the most over-crowded yard. Meadows should be next, I would think.

In any case, my apoligies if I have seemed to minimize staff assaults. No one's safety in prison is more or less important than another's by virtue of whether they wear orange, brown, or civies. The assault rate on staff appears to have been decreasing at the same time it's actually increasing among prisoners, nevertheless the staff are still so upset about the way the DOC has failed to address their safety concerns that one of the officers' unions, the Arizona Corrections Association, has dragged Judicial Watch into it - they're demanding records for an investigation. 

What I hear most from the sex offender yards, actually, is not how vicious the other prisoners are or how violent the gangs are (they really don't seem to run the SO yards), but how cruel some of the officers are.  Here's an excerpt from a man who was homeless, mentally ill, and an easy target for police when arrested and prosecuted for the rape and murder of an 88-year old woman over a decade ago. Even the Arizona Justice Project tried to get the DNA evidence re-examined because they believe he was wrongfully-convicted, for some reason the judge wouldn't allow it. 

" i have been There hrassed and ThreaTed by STaff and inmaTes asaltied  by STaff and ThreaTing black and blue marks on my arm For 30 Days and  For whaT because I senT in a inmaTe LeTTer or a grievance on STaff or  a inmaTe. No Help with it. My Cell maTe Said noT to Say any Thing  abouT. Time I am mad and and write a inmaTe Letter or grievance about  it All it dose is geT STaff mad a you and Then Tell everyone To Harass you They mess up your mail or your indigent or HNRS inmate LeTTers They are LosT or ? you donT geT your RefiLL meds. your Food is mess with They spit in it or mess it up They put some Thing in you Food. mae Time I did NoT EAT because of it. you donT get yourr maiL They Throw it somewhere and maybe if some one funds it you met get it Back. your maiL, or your mail is being given To a inmaTe ? He dans whaT He want with it He reads your maiL and Throws it away. ? or when They Take you To The Shower. They go in your Cell and Take Things or brake Things of yours your T.V. your Radio.... 

I wanT no more of This I wanT Peace. To be in Peace. I am Sorry. I want to go home. or. I want to go home soon I Pray I go home, I am innocent of this crime. Look at it. "


So here sits this possibly innocent man in prison, and yet most Americans would look at his crime, and say "good riddance" in response to his grievances - and the officers perpetrating this garbage on him know it. That kind of relentless abuse meted out to certain prisoners by guards who think they deserve torture on top of imprisonment isn't uncommon, nor is it limited to the sex offenders. 

Never mind that an estimated 8-15% of  convicted sex offenders, in one DNA-based exoneration study, may well be innocent. We too often presume that the "truth" comes out in the prosecution process and no one is in prison unless they're definitely guilty. Not that the possibility we are punishing "the innocent" in prison too harshly should be the only reason not to torture prisoners in America - torture should be banned regardless of the status of one's guilt or inocence.

Some officers I hear about over and over again are exacting their own kind of justice from prisoners, only it seems their abuse can never be "substantiated" when formal complaints are made, so they remain in positions of power - some even get promoted. I believe the heirarchy in those places encourages brutality by consistently failing to substantiate it. They know they can get away with hurting those guys, too, as there will be no public outcry in their defense.

As another example, last April the Meadows' Tactical Support Unit was called on to do a shakedown (thorough search for contraband) of the unit, during which several of the prisoners allege that that the TSU officers pushed them around aggressively and used racial epithets. Several prisoners from that yard also reported that a deaf prisoner was beaten by guards because he couldn't hear the orders being barked at him and respond fast enough. According to one witness, when the officers took him to medical to treat him for the injuries they inflicted on him, the nurse naturally asked what happened. "He fell," the TSU officers laughed.  Of course, in their own  incident reports - amended after the prisoners complained - the guards assert that they used the "least amount of force necessary to gain compliance" from the deaf guy, and mention nothing about him going to medical. The DOC asserts every one of their officers conducted themselves professionally. That kind of unjust treatment of prisoners can cause serious resentment and thus endangers all staff, ultimately.

Meadows was also recently the subject of concern about how the prisoners' mental health needs are being attended to - they were essentially rounded up, chained like animals, and taken to a mass video-psych eval this fall, which sounds like its a coomon practice, actually.  I often hear complaints from there about poor health care access as well.

In any case, my thoughts and healing wishes do go out to this teacher who was so brutally assaulted, and to the rest of the staff and prisoners at the DOC who have been victims of violence behind bars. If we counted the crimes perpetrated against people in prison with the community's statistics, the crime rates of those communities would be much higher and we might have to address them differently - like redistribute victim assistance resources, among other things. In fact, if crime against people in prison was reported as such, the USA would have the highest male-on-male rate of rape in the world. Think about that as you contemplate how necessary prisons are to contain and rehabilitate young drug offenders, check bouncers, or people who smuggled themselves into the country to find a decent job and support their family, for example. 

Bottom line is that prisons are heteropatriarchal, misogynistic institutions run entirely on violence and the threat of it. Prisons are designed to inflict harm on people's minds and lives without leaving a mark on their bodies, hidden in the shadows and margins of our social fabirc so the rest of us can sleep at night, certain that only the purest system of Justice is what lets Freedom ring in America for the rest of us. In truth, the US justice system works only for the privileged few, trials are contests between opposing attorneys, not effective methods of discovering truth, and prisons are essentially horribly dangerous places to both live and work. Those of you who clamor for a new prison in your town may want to reconsider how much these jobs are really the kind you want your children and grandchildren to grow into.  

In light of the above, our judiciary should really reconsider how many more drug addicts, sex workers, and homeless mentally ill people they want to throw into the lion's den. Many will simply be further victimized and traumatized, few will be able to afford to pay to get their GED or pursue other educational options in state prison, only 4% will ever get any kind of substance abuse treatment in there to rehabilitate themselves, and over 40% of prisoners are coming out infected with Hep C, a good many with new addictions to boot.
(See Corrections at a Glance for stats on substance abuse treatment, HEP C, and the reasons people are in prison)

Prison violence escalating: Teacher assaulted in Supermax.

This is really unfortunate and never should have happened. Despite his crime, time, and the recency of his arrival, this guy's score was lower than most of the non-violent gay/trans prisoners and potheads now locked down 23hrs/day in maximum security for Refusing to House on lower level GP yards due to fear of victimization. 

Anyway, if the yard was "fully staffed" that day, why was this teacher left alone with a bunch of sexual predators? Is that the standard policy at Meadows?

Here's what the former Deputy Warden of the Meadows Unit had to say about it (from KPNX/Channel 12News in Phoenix )

CH 12 Call for Action: Extortionists exposed.

Excellent coverage by the AZ Republic/12 News. Because sex-offenders don't generally evoke much sympathy, this was a courageous story. Few people are aware that "peeping Toms," boys convicted of sleeping with their underage girlfriends, and homeless people caught urinating in public could all be in those registries along with rapists and child molesters. And I bet even fewer know that between 8-15% of those convicted of sex offenses are innocent.

Just look at what happened to Courtney Bisbee.
 
There's been a proliferation of such sites posting mug shots of those merely accused of crimes as petty as trespassing and littering, too, with offers to take the info down for a fee. 'Extortion' is the term that's always come to mind when I've come across them. Than you azcentral and Robert Anglen for exposing them.

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Sex-offender data is used to collect money and intimidate

By Robert AnglenThe Republic | azcentral.comTue May 28, 2013 5:12 PM

A network of Arizona-based Internet companies is mining data from sex-offender sites maintained by law-enforcement agencies and using it to demand money and harass those who complain or refuse to pay.

RELATED CONTENT: Offendix.com critics speak out

State and national registries are set up to provide information on where the most serious sex offenders are living and warn that the information cannot be used to threaten, harass or intimidate offenders.

But sex offenders and others profiled by the Arizona companies accuse their operators, in a civil lawsuit and elsewhere, of running an extortion racket by demanding up to $499 for removing names, criminal histories, photographs, addresses, phone numbers and other personal data from their non-government sites.

They accuse operators of posting inaccurate or old information and using the threat of exposure as a sex offender as leverage.

Operators of SORArchives.com, Offendex.com and Onlinedetective.com did not take down individual profiles after payments were made and launched online harassment campaigns against those who balked at financial demands or filed complaints, an eight-month Call 12 for Action investigation found.

Call 12 found the websites list individuals as sex offenders who no longer are required to register and whose names have been removed from state databases. Among the hundreds of thousands of names that appear, the websites include names and addresses of people who never have been arrested or convicted of a sex crime.

The Internet-savvy operators ensure that anyone in their databases can be found easily on a Google search. They have prominently profiled specific individuals, published their home and e-mail addresses, posted photographs of their relatives and copied their Facebook friends onto the offender websites.

“Enjoy the exposure you have created for yourself,” operators said in an e-mail to an offender last year. “Unfortunately you took (your) family with you.”

Internet searches are ubiquitous today for screening and verifying everything from financial applications to resumes. If someone’s name pops up on a sex-offender database, it could affect their ability to get a job, a loan or even a date.

Court filings, computer searches, corporation records and interviews show the two operators of the websites are Chuck Rodrick, 51, and Brent Oesterblad, 52, longtime Valley residents who for the past decade have operated a series of Web-based businesses in Maricopa County. They both have felony convictions on fraud-related charges.

Rodrick and Oesterblad refused to discuss the websites and denied ownership.

Those who challenged Rodrick and Oesterblad said the interactions frequently turned ugly, with intimidating calls, vitriolic e-mails and threats of lawsuits.

“I feel degraded, humiliated, harassed and intimidated,” said Gordon Grainger of Montana, a former registered sex offender who said he has tried to get his name removed from the websites. “I won’t lie. It’s gotten to the point where I have had suicidal thoughts.”

Grainger in January recorded two calls with Rodrick and posted them on various websites, including YouTube.

“We have a soft spot for innocent people. We take them (profiles) down all of the time when people can prove they are innocent. ... In return, what are you going to do for us?” Rodrick said in one call. “I don’t care if you guys have an opinion on Offendex or call it extortion or whatever.”

Rodrick acknowledged that he was being recorded in the call. He maintained that the websites are legal and insisted that no attorney general in the United States would take action against the websites.

SORArchives, Offendex and Onlinedetective were built using data from official state sex-offender registries, according to a Silicon Valley computer engineer who said Rodrick paid him hundreds of thousands of dollars to design and update the websites.

State police and departments of correction generally are responsible for maintaining official registries, which can include an offender’s name, photograph, physical characteristics, addresses and description of the crime. The Arizona Department of Public Safety, which operates the state’s official registry, azsexoffender.org, states on the site that “misuse of this information may result in criminal prosecution.”

People named on the sites say they have submitted complaints with attorneys general in Arizona, Louisiana, Montana, Virginia and Washington and with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other federal agencies.

No law-enforcement agency has taken any court action against Rodrick and Oesterblad over the websites, records show.

In March, California lawyer Janice Belucci filed a federal civil lawsuit in Los Angeles on behalf of 10 people. The lawsuit accuses Rodrick and Oesterblad of racketeering and extortion.

Lawyers representing the website operators this month responded with a motion to dismiss the case for a lack of jurisdiction.

Belucci said law enforcement has failed to act despite ample evidence.

“Most people don’t care about sex offenders,” she said. “They are the victims in all of this.”

Contacting operators directly isn’t easy; no business licenses seen for SORArchives, Offendex

SORArchives and Offendex share the same slogan: “Find sex offenders in your area ... Before they find you!”

But operators of the websites can’t be easily identified or located. SORArchives and Offendex do not list on their sites any phone numbers, addresses or contact information beyond online e-mail forms.

Contact information sent via e-mails to site users directs them to a phone number and voice mail registered in Canada. Payments are made through electronic third parties to unnamed recipients at the websites.

The websites in May were registered in Australia with domain names provided by a company that operates worldwide. But Internet protocol address searches and court records indicate that servers hosting the websites are located in Tempe.

The websites use PayPal and a credit-card billing system to collect money from users.

Offendex stated last year that it operated within the laws of Arizona. A similar notice on the Onlinedetective website states that any disputes will be resolved in a Maricopa County court.

Extensive record searches show SORArchives and Offendex operated without business licenses or any corporation filings. Any corporation or limited-liability company doing business in the state is required by law to register with the Arizona Corporation Commission. Trade names and partnerships must be registered with the secretary of state. Some cities also require business licenses.

Days after Call 12 attempted to contact Rodrick and Oesterbald in December, the Offendex website was taken down. Users were redirected to Onlinedetective.com.

Onlinedetective is a registered corporation. Records show Rodrick and Oesterblad were equal partners when they launched Onlinedetective in 2002. In 2011, Rodrick’s name was removed from company documents, leaving Oesterblad and his wife, Sarah Shea, as the only managers listed on the documents.

The websites are often changed, from links to terms of service to text. For instance, Onlinedetective recently directed users to SORArchives, but the link later was removed.

SORArchives nearly mirrors the former Offendex site. The websites share the same visual elements, graphics, link capabilities and nearly identical terms of service.

SORArchives says records for 750,000 active sex offenders are available for online searches. The site promises to protect families from the menace of sex offenders in their neighborhoods by providing access to present and past criminal records.

Sex offenders are sometimes removed from state registries because their crimes have been reclassified and no longer are considered serious enough to require registration. Some offenders are required to register only with law enforcement, and their names would not appear on public registries.

Others have done their time and have sought court orders to remove their names from state and national registries.

“Even if the sex offender is not required to register that does not mean the record itself goes away,” SORArchive states. “To help stop the threat, you must know how to locate the offenders.”

Customers say they pay for removal of names but information remains online

If offenders want their name and profiles off the website, SORArchives tells them they will have to pay.

But payment is no guarantee of removal, according to the website. And some of those who have paid say their names and profiles remain online.

Offendex offered users two options: Pay $79 for a review of a records-removal request or $499 for a no-questions-asked removal.

SORArchives used the same options until earlier this month. The website now offers a free review service that can take up to eight weeks, an expedited removal for $79 and an “instant removal” with no price listed.

“We are not under any legal obligation to remove any valid public record or to be in sync with any official sex offender registry,” SORArchives states.

E-mails, court records and interviews show that $79 removal requests can end in denials and users are told to pay $499.

An e-mail obtained by Call 12 from a sex offender who paid $79 to have his record removed from the site shows what transpires.

A woman identified as Sarah Reynolds in customer service wrote that the offender’s records could not be removed because “circumstances do not meet the Offendex.com criteria for removal.”

Reynolds included a contact number in British Columbia, Canada.

Reynolds provides no explanation of the Offendex criteria. But she writes: “If it is imperative to you that you be removed, perhaps a payment plan can be arranged.”

Key operators have worked together for years on Internet-related businesses

Interviews, computer searches, e-mails, court records and the websites themselves point to Rodrick andOesterblad as playing leading roles in the operation. That includes creating the websites, making legal demands, updating records, negotiating payments, sending e-mails to offenders and posting profiles.

Rodrick and Oesterblad refused to discuss the websites. By phone or in person, both denied ownership and declined to provide details about their roles with the websites. Their lawyers also did not respond to phone calls.

Rodrick and Oesterblad have worked together for a decade on various Internet-related business, records and interviews show.

Rodrick, who has lived in Tempe, Chandler, Cave Creek and Phoenix, pleaded guilty in 1993 to selling illegal cable-television descramblers with fraudulent intent. In 1996, he was sued in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for his role in an Alaskan Ponzi scheme that cost investors as much as $50 million. A final judgment of $58,900 was entered against him. Court records do not show any payments were made.

Oesterblad has lived for years in Paradise Valley. He pleaded guilty in 1992 for his part in a frequent-flier scam operated out of his family’s Phoenix travel agency and spent 10 months in a federal prison.

In a phone message to Call 12 in December, Oesterblad said he was simply contracted to work for Offendex and had no part in the company.

Rodrick, however, described Oesterblad’s role in the Montana phone calls recorded in January.

“Brent’s not the owner. Brent does legal research and Brent does communication,” Rodrick said. “I’m on the development side. I’m not going to disclose ownership.”

The name, address and phone number of Rodrick’s estranged wife, Lois Flynn, appear on SORArchives, Offendex and Onlinedetective. Flynn, who has been involved in a protracted divorce case with Rodrick, never has been convicted of a crime.

Rodrick and his girlfriend, Phoenix court reporter Traci Heisig, sued Flynn in January, accusing her of defamation. They also sued Flynn’s employer and several others. Flynn and other defendants have denied the allegations. They have filed separate counterclaims, calling the defamation suit harassment. Oesterblad is named in two of the counterclaims.

The cases are ongoing, with multiple motions back and forth.

A posting on Offendex in 2012 accused Flynn of working to defame the website. Onlinedetective also posted the accusations.

“The ex wife of one of the administrators of this website seem to be on a crusade to smear the name of this website,” according to a post, which goes on to accuse her of infidelity and alcohol abuse. “This pretty much speaks for itself. We will post more information as we find time.”

Flynn, the mother of Rodrick’s two children, denies abusing alcohol or having an extramarital affair.

Some people named on the sites are not listed on law-enforcement registries

Not all of the people listed on SORArchives and Offendex are registered sex offenders. Some have no criminal records.

Yet their names, addresses and other personal information continue to be profiled on the sex-offender websites for anyone with an Internet connection to view.

In Virginia, a man last year stumbled onto the Offendex profile of his recently deceased brother-in-law. He said he contacted the website in an effort to spare his sister and her two young daughters from learning about the 18-year-old conviction. But when he said he balked at paying, the websites posted his name and e-mail. They also posted his sister’s address, her name and the names of her children, in-laws and other relatives.

In Washington, a man found his mug shot from an arrest in 1997 now attached to details of a minor sex offense that occurred nearly 30 years earlier in another state. The man said he never was required to register as a sex offender and his name was not included on any official registries. He contacted Offendex and said operators threatened to publish his name throughout the Internet.

In Louisiana, a schoolteacher bought a house owned by a convicted sex offender whose name was removed from all official registries in 2009. Even after being notified that the offender no longer lived in the house and being paid to remove the profile, Offendex and SORArchives continued publishing the woman’s address as if the sex offender still resided there.

“These guys terrorize people all over the country,” said Melvin Dominguez, 58, the Louisiana offender who owned the house. “They hurt innocent people.”

Men and women across the country have filed consumer complaints about Offendex, SORArchives and Onlinedetective.

“I have an expunged record that is not available to anyone, but if you Google my name, low and behold, it shows up on this website,” a person identified as crsmolti wrote on the website Sueeasy.com.

“This has caused severe stress knowing Offendex has put this information on the internet after eight years of being off any sex offender registry,” shawnyc36 wrote on the same site. “I have a background check for a job in progress, I’m so nervous they are going to Google my name.”

The 10 plaintiffs in the California racketeering suit against Rodrick and Oesterblad say the websites targeted them as part of an extortion scheme.

Lawyers for the website operators said in a court filing this month that the websites are “passive” because operators don’t initiate contact with offenders. They are asking a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying it should not have been filed in California.

“The Websites do not specifically target California or its residents. The Websites simply archive public records of convicted sex offenders in all 50 states,” lawyers wrote. “The information on the Websites is provided to the public nationwide free of charge. No goods or services are actually sold on the Websites.”

Eight plaintiffs say they paid fees to have their profiles and personal information removed, but the websites continued publishing the information anyway.

Two plaintiffs say they have no records as sex offenders. They are relatives of former registered sex offenders who said their names and photographs were posted on the sex-offender websites.

Three plaintiffs were convicted of sex offenses but were not required to register as sex offenders. Two plaintiffs once had to register but are no longer required to do so. The final three are registered sex offenders.

A federal judge in the case acknowledged the potential damage of being publicly labeled a sex offender and last month ordered to keep secret the identities of plaintiffs. The judge said their physical safety is at stake.

The plaintiffs, who are from California, Kentucky, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington, are identified by numbers and John Does.

In an interview last month, John Doe 8 said he is not a convicted sex offender.

“But for Offendex, this record wouldn’t exist,” said the man, who is an entertainment-industry consultant in Oregon.

In 2006, John Doe 8 said he pleaded no contest in Oregon to possessing a sexually related image of a child. He was sentenced to two years of probation for a non-registered offense. In 2011, he was arrested in Virginia and accused of possessing marijuana in Virginia.

John Doe 8 said Offendex and SORArchives used his mug shot from the Virginia arrest and the conviction in Oregon to create a new profile calling him a sex offender.

He was unaware of the profile until November, when a friend of his girlfriend alerted her to it. John Doe 8 said he requested a review to remove his profile and was told he didn’t qualify. He complained.

Offendex and SORArchives responded by beefing up his profile, he said.

“The repercussions of this are far worse than the actual sentence,” he said, adding that the stigma of being portrayed as a sex offender already has cost him a relationship and nearly a job.

Those who try to get their names removed can face harassment online

Those who have challenged the websites say they and their families have been subjected to harassment that includes having personal phone numbers, addresses and photographs of family and friends published on the sex-offender websites.

They say operators made threatening phone calls, sent disturbing e-mails and scraped Facebook profiles to copy the information onto the sites.

Grainger, 36, of Great Falls, Mont., said his family has been under siege for almost a year. He said Rodrick and Oesterblad threatened him in a series of e-mails and sent him a photograph of his own infant son to punctuate their demands.

“Since you like Facebook so much ... we have added your 65 friends to your page on Offendex,” a Nov. 9 e-mail reads. “We will release your record to five more search engines plus a few other ‘special spots’ that you do not want to be.”

A review of the e-mails shows they were sent from a variety of addresses, including Rodrick’s Gmail account. Some of the e-mails contain salutations from the Offendex “support team,” “support staff” or “legal research team.” Others are signed by “Brent” or “Brent Marshal,” which is Oesterblad’s middle name.

In the calls Grainger recorded in January, Rodrick said he decides who gets profiled on the websites.

“I have control over whether or not a record (goes) up or down,” Rodrick said. “I do have that control, and I do have the ability to make that happen.”

Grainger was convicted in 1995 at age 19 for having sex with his 15-year-old girlfriend. His arrest in Michigan came after he stole her father’s gun and car and attempted to run away with her. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Grainger said he carefully rebuilt his life since being released from prison, moving to Montana, enrolling in paralegal classes and starting a family. In 2011, based on changes in Michigan law, Grainger was no longer required to register as a sex offender and his name was removed from official databases.

He said he was shocked to discover his Offendex profile last year and fought with operators to have it removed.

Operators accused Grainger of harassment for posting comments about Offendex on YouTube and other websites.

Grainger acknowledged firing off angry, obscenity-laced e-mails to Rodrick and Oesterblad and referring to them in derogatory terms in Web posts.

“They have threatened me and my family. Of course I am mad,” he said. “I hate these guys for what they are doing.”

Grainger and his wife are named in Rodrick’s defamation suit. Rodrick also sued a Seattle man named Adam Galvez and his mother for defamation.

Galvez, 38, is a sex offender who in 1996 pleaded guilty to child molestation.

Galvez was 22 and working as a store security guard when he said he befriended a 13-year-old boy who had significant family problems and was living on the streets. He said the boy later accused him of abuse. Galvez was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

After his release, Galvez said he was arrested on several alcohol-related offenses, including driving under the influence. Galvez said he was required to register publicly as a sex offender for about six months before his name was removed from public databases.

By 2012, Galvez said he was on the road to recovery when he found his profile on Offendex. Like so many others, he said, he contacted the website thinking he could get his name removed.

Operators of Offendex posted pictures of Galvez’s mother and brother on the sex-offender websites along with their addresses. They also put his Facebook friends on the sites. In e-mails, website operators accused him in the most stark and graphic terms of preying on young boys.

Galvez fought back, launching his own investigation of Offendex and posting his findings on a website he called offendextortion.com.

The website quickly became an Internet gathering place for Offendex critics. Offenders and others exchanged information and stories of harassment; they discussed legal strategies, ways to expose the sites and get law enforcement involved. Galvez created links on the site for Rodrick and Oesterblad, whom he identified by name. He also identified Rodrick’s girlfriend.

Galvez, who is one of the plaintiffs in the federal suit, spoke to Call 12 months before the suit was filed.

“They have been bullying and harassing people,” Galvez said. “If it helps other people, I’m willing to fight them.”

Grainger and Galvez deny defaming Rodrick, and both have filed counterclaims accusing him of harassment. Galvez added Oesterblad to his claims.

Rodrick has filed motions disputing the men’s claims.

Designer describes websites’ evolution: ‘It’s nothing like what it was in the beginning’

The sex-offender websites were built using data copied directly from official law-enforcement websites, according to the software developer and computer engineer who developed the sites.

Eric Souhrada, a former Tempe software developer and computer engineer now living in California, said he designed the sex-offender websites as subscription services, not as a vehicle to target offenders with demands for money.

“People would pay monthly subscriptions to get alerts,” Souhrada said in a phone interview last month from his Silicon Valley home. “It was set up to be a collection of data. That’s what it was intended to be.”

Financial records obtained by Call 12 show Rodrick paid Souhrada more than $230,000 since 2005. Souhrada confirmed the amount and said he was hired by Rodrick to develop and maintain a variety of websites, including the sex-offender sites.

Souhrada, the president of Deadbunny Enterprises, holds degrees in mathematics and political science from Arizona State University. He said he has known Rodrick since 1997.

Souhrada said he designed the sex-offender sites from data he scraped from official registries maintained by law-enforcement agencies across the country. He said he reformatted the data into his own templates that Rodrick used for websites such as Offendex.

“I wrote the code for it,” he said. “It was OK. We were not doing anything illegal.”

One of the first websites Souhrada said he set up for Rodrick was Web Express, which did business as Onlinedetective in 2001. He also designed a website called Dunebuggy.com, which Rodrick used to market high-end dune buggies.

Souhrada said Rodrick had a talent for coming up with profitable websites, even when the ideas sounded as if they could not make money.

Souhrada said he copied verbatim from state registries when he set up the sex-offender sites. He said he did not want anybody to be able to accuse operators of exercising editorial control over the information from public databases.

Souhrada said he assumed Rodrick owned the websites. He said Rodrick was his only contact; Rodrick described the work he wanted done, discussed its applications and arranged payments to a business account.

Souhrada said he occasionally worked with Oesterblad on the websites, but most of his contact was with Rodrick.

Souhrada said the websites have evolved over the years, and he wondered if the original concept proved to be unprofitable.

“It’s nothing like what it was in the beginning,” he said.

Complaints filed with FBI, attorneys general in 5 states; as yet, no action taken

Complaints about Offendex and the other websites have been filed with local, state and federal law-enforcement agencies for almost a year.

Offenders, their relatives and others who say they have been targeted by the websites say officials won’t act. They say agencies take reports, then decline to open investigations or refer cases elsewhere.

Complaints have been submitted with the FBI, the Federal Trade Commission and the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which works with the FBI to refer Internet criminal cases to various agencies.

One offender said federal prosecutors in Virginia told him they would not open a case.

Neither the FBI nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia would comment. FBI officials in Arizona also declined comment.

Complaints have also been submitted with attorneys general in at least five states, including Arizona.

“They don’t take action because of who we are: sex offenders,” said Grainger, who lodged complaints with state and federal authorities in Montana and Arizona. “But we deserve equal protection under the law.”

Officials with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which maintains Arizona’s official online database, said they were unaware of Offendex and the other websites until being contacted by Call 12 for Action late last year.

Spokesman Bart Graves said at the time officers studied the website and concluded data published on Offendex wasn’t coming from the state’s website, but they were interested in collecting more information about Offendex. He said officers were consulting with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office and would turn over their findings for further investigation.

At least five offenders interviewed by Call 12 for Action said they submitted separate complaints to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

The Virginia Attorney General’s Office told one complainant that it lacked jurisdiction and said “it would be prudent” to contact the Arizona attorney general.

Officials with the Montana Department of Justice said they, too, have sent information and complaints about the websites to the Arizona attorney general.

“The last we heard, they have not been able to resolve any complaints they have on file,” Montana DOJ spokesman John Barnes said. “We did contact the (Federal Trade Commission) and made sure they were aware of what was going on.”

A spokesman for Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne said no complaints about Offendex could be located. Documents obtained by Call 12 for Action show some complaints were routed to the attorney general’s criminal division and community outreach and education division.

Community division director Kathleen Winn said in e-mails that she had been contacted by at least two people about Offendex.

“This is being referred to the Tempe Police Department. Someone will contact you,” Winn wrote in an e-mail response to a complainant in February. “I apologize it was not in a timeframe you had anticipated.”

She provided no explanation for referring the case to Tempe.

Tempe police officials said this month the department has not received any referrals regarding the case from the Attorney General’s Office.

In the recorded phone calls, Rodrick said he is used to dealing with law enforcement and that attorneys general will do little more than send out letters before closing cases.

“The attorney generals aren’t going to help you,” Rodrick said during one call, adding later: “This is what we do. We are the Internet.”

Robert Anglen and Veronica Sanchez lead the Call 12 for Action team, focused on issues important to Arizona consumers. Contact the reporter at robert.anglen@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter @robertanglen.