Web site down after filing of suit
Sex-convict registry critic besieged by harsh online criticism
By Kim Smith, ARIZONA DAILY STAR,
2008
If you Google Jan Kruska's name, you'll find dozens of Web sites calling
her a pedophile, a convicted child molester, a psychopath and an
advocate for sex offenders.
Since she testified against sex-offender registries to a state
legislative hearing in 2006, the 38-year-old mother of four has seen her
picture, address, phone numbers and other personal information published
on often-anonymous Internet venues.
Kruska, who lives in Glendale, is vulnerable to such attacks. Besides
being an outspoken critic of sex-offender registration, especially for
youthful offenders, she has a misdemeanor conviction for having sex with
a friend's 15-year-old son 16 years ago.
But as of last Thursday, she has one less Web site to fight.
Jankruska.com, created by her critics to attack her reputation and
silence her criticism of government sex registries, was shut down by the
GoDaddy.com Web-hosting company after Kruska sued it and everyone
associated with the Internet page.
Kruska said she filed the suit in U.S. District Court last month after
spending more than a year in constant fear.
The suit accuses the Web-site creators of defamation of character,
intentional infliction of emotional distress, cyberstalking and
cyberharassment. She wants the judge to prohibit the defendants from
ever posting about her again.
Kruska started her own Web site, operationawareness.com, in May 2006. At
that time, she was writing under a pseudonym and living in relative
obscurity in Glendale.
Five months later, she shared her thoughts about
sex-offender-registration laws with a joint legislative committee on
youthful sex offenders.
Kruska said that when she was 22, she was convicted of misdemeanor
sexual conduct with a minor and was placed on three years' probation.
She also was required to register as a sex offender, although her name
doesn't appear in the Arizona Department of Public Safety registry
because she is such a low-level offender.
Her testimony to lawmakers made the same points she had blogged about
for months. She doesn't believe everyone convicted of a sex crime should
be forced to register, and she isn't convinced that sex-offender
registries make communities safer.
"I guess that was the nail in my coffin," Kruska said.
It didn't take long for bloggers who didn't agree with Kruska to
discover her Web site, which is registered under her real name.
Soon, Kruska said, everything she had written had been taken, twisted
and posted on other Web sites.
Kruska insists that she isn't a pedophile or pro-pedophilia. She just
believes that lawmakers, seeking to get re-elected, have gone overboard
when it comes to dealing with sex offenses.
The current system simply doesn't work, and it gives communities a false
sense of security, Kruska said.
Instead of making children who engage in consensual sex register as sex
offenders, Kruska said, more resources need to be devoted to the truly
dangerous sex offenders - those who believe sex with children is normal
and are likely to commit repeat offenses.
Moreover, she believes that so many restrictions are imposed on where
sex offenders can live that many are living on the street, making them
harder to track.
She also has been criticized for saying that the parents of some
high-profile murdered and raped children didn't supervise their children
as well as they could have, and she said sex-offender registries have
resulted in vigilantism.
She bolsters her arguments with newspaper articles and editorials posted
on her Web site.
"I don't know why they are picking on me, because there are a lot of
people out there who are really sick. The only thing I can think of is
they are afraid of the message," Kruska said.
One of Kruska's most ardent critics is Petra Luna, who calls herself the
commander and chief of the Petra Luna Anti-Abuse Army and leader of the
War on Abuse Movement.
"We are demanding at this time an unconditional surrender of all of your
pro-pedophile Web sites," Luna wrote in a signed notice to Kruska on the
jankruska.com Web site.
"I expect them to all be shut down by Oct. 15. If you do not comply with
our wishes, we will launch a full-scale activist attack on you," Luna
warned.
Luna threatened online to have her "activist army" push law enforcement
to start questioning, "Why does a registered sex offender who persuades
mothers not to report their child-molesting partners still have custody
of her children?"
In a five-minute YouTube commentary, Kruska suggests that sex crimes
often go unreported because families are afraid of the ramifications
dictated by the government. There are times, she says, when counseling
would be more beneficial than forcing offenders to go to prison and to
register.
Luna did not respond to an e-mail interview request. But an anonymous
representative of absolutezerounited.blogspot. com, another Web site
critical of Kruska, did.
The "Absolute Zero Team" maintains everything it has ever written about
Kruska is "true and verifiable," and that it is Kruska who is attacking
Absolute Zero.
The response accused Kruska of mocking sexual-abuse victims. It said
Kruska also posted statements on the Internet alleging some Absolute
Zero members were child pornographers and molesters.
The group calls Kruska's lawsuit "an outrage."
Kruska said she has never mocked a sexual-abuse victim or labeled anyone
associated with Absolute Zero a child molester or child pornographer.
Wikisposure.com - a subsidiary of the Perverted Justice Foundation,
which also has targeted Kruska - also responded to questions with an
unsigned e-mail calling the lawsuit "frivolous" and "completely without
merit."
Richard Spinello, a Boston College professor who specializes in
technology and ethics, compared the Internet to the Wild West. Hackers
abound, and so do bloggers who have no sense of civility, he said.
"It's an interesting phenomenon," Spinello said. "People feel
increasingly emboldened to attack and vilify people because it's a
virtual environment and they have the impression there are no
repercussions."
The reality is very few libel lawsuits involving the Internet have been
filed because the First Amendment is so broad, Spinello said.
"I think it started on TV," he said. "Shows like 'Jerry Springer' kept
pushing the envelope and pushing the envelope, and it spilled over into
the Internet, sporting events and other venues, and it's gotten out of
control."
Spinello doesn't see things changing anytime soon.
"It would be very hard to craft any law that would be respectful of the
First Amendment and curtail the worst behavior," he said. "It's very
hard to legislate moral behavior and make people behave civilly and
respectfully."
Kevin R. Kemper, an assistant journalism professor at the University of
Arizona, said it would be wrong to even try to pass laws "to regulate
incivility on the Internet."
"People have a constitutional right to rant and rave," Kemper said, but
unfortunately some bloggers tend not to think before they post. He
predicted that people eventually will tire of the boorish behavior so
common on the Internet.
But until people decide to be nicer to each other, bloggers should
simply understand that incivility is the price they may have to pay for
posting their opinions, Kemper said.
- - - [61 Comments, mostly contra, some pro, and lots of
'Comment on this comment'] - - -
Here is a copy of lawsuit filed and Jan's official statement:
http://www.corrupted-justice.com/
Statement
Friday, January 18, 2008
WHO IS JAN KRUSKA?
Who is Jan Kruska?
She is me. I am 38 years old and married with four beautiful and
wonderful children. My married name is Jan Kruska. I have been writing
under the “pen name” Amanda Rogers, on operationawareness.com and
various other forums, not to protect myself or to hide from my past, but
only to protect my husband and children, who are innocent of any
wrongdoing. Their only crime is loving me.
Yes, I have a past, we all do. Things I’m not proud of and wish I
could change. It is true I do have a criminal conviction from 16 years
ago. My only one - a misdemeanor conviction and it is NOT for child
molestation or child abuse. Let’s make that clear right up front.
There are numerous webpages, Myspace pages and blogs out there now
dedicated to me, some in my own name.
It all began last August 2007. I don’t know any of these people. I
have never met them and never care to, though I am certain now that I
will be facing some, if not all of them in a court of law in the very
near future. The claims they have made against me are horrendous and
false. I have received death threats and threats of bodily injury by
some of these people. This will all be made public, they will all be
held accountable in a court of law. Anyone that knows me is well aware
of my past as are those who I consider friends and close family. Not one
of them look at me any differently because of what happened
It is true that I am required to register as a sex offender and
have been doing so for 16 years because in Arizona it is a lifetime
requirement.. It is also true that I am not found on any sex offender
website because my crime was not horrific or forcible, and did not
involve a child. Another reason is that I do not pose a threat to any
child or any person in society. That is why I am NOT - nor have EVER
been on community notification.
The State of Arizona was my convicting jurisdiction (NOT
Massachusetts as Perverted Justice’s Corporate Sex Offenders and Petra
Luna claim and/ or have claimed. By now it should be quite obvious they
don’t check their facts before they set about defaming and harassing
people. The state has deemed me as non-violent and non-dangerous and as
an insignificant risk to society. If they did, I am certain they would
not hesitate to notify my community.
My crime was committed 16 years ago, before Megan’s Law and others
like it. I plead guilty to a misdemeanor conviction, not a felony. I
plead guilty because I had committed the act which I was accused. I did
not try and lie my way out of it.
The crime was consensual involving a 15 year old male who was very
close to me at that time. I had just turned 22. The two of us were being
violently physically abused as well as emotionally abused daily for an
extended period by the minor’s adopted father. The father was ultimately
charged and convicted with a class 4 felony for child abuse. He is
listed as defendant B in the same case number as mine which is
CR-1992-04222. I am defendant (A). I welcome anyone who is concerned
about me to visit the Maricopa County Superior Court’s Court Records
Archives if they would like to view the documents and compare them to
the accuracy of my statements here. The court documents there reflect
that my crime was consensual and that I am not a pedophile or a child
molester.
In 1992 under Arizona law - child molestation would mean that the
victim would have to be age 12 or younger. Also in 1992 registering
meant all you had to do was notify the Sheriff if you moved of your
address, now there are multiple retroactively applied requirements, none
of which focus on prevention or save kids from harm.
I personally never went to jail or prison, not even for a day. I
simply served 1 year probation of a three year probation sentence. I
have no prior crimes and have committed no crimes since - not even a
speeding ticket. I do not visit “chat-rooms” or engage in “instant
messaging” on the internet.
I am a dedicated wife and mother. My family means the world to me
and I am genuinely concerned for their safety and for the safety of ALL
children. I do not condone pedophelia, I abhor child abuse in ALL forms
- be it sexual, physical, emotional., or neglect. I know what it is like
to be on the receiving end of those things as a child, for many years. I
know what it does to a child. I want nothing more than to prevent it.
I find ALL forms of child abuse despicable. If I knew that someone
was molesting a young child I would turn them in, in an instant, and I
have. I reported a documented case of a 36 year old male molesting my
then 10 year old daughter’s best friend. He had been doing so for over a
year. I was the one the girl confided in and I was the one that turned
him in. Unfortunately, he was never prosecuted because the abuse hadn’t
escalated to the point of penetration and he denied everything. Still,
the girl was permanently placed in foster care. The Child Protective
Services caseworker in Phoenix that handled the case was Rachel Ostro if
anyone cares to verify this. Now, IF I were a pedophile, as many on the
internet are falsely claiming would I have turned that guy in for
molesting that young girl? Of course not.
Since my conviction 16 years ago, I have been around pretty much
nothing but children as I have four of my own, and they do have friends.
I openly invite anyone to investigate any of my contacts with these
children and they will see there is nothing there. I have nothing to hide.
Anyone that would molest a small child is sick and needs help. It
is difficult if not impossible for one to try and grasp how an adult
could rationalize that that is somehow okay. Anyone openly claiming to
be a pedophile or claiming that having a sexual preference for
pre-pubescent children is “normal” or “acceptable” is just plain lunacy.
I have no empathy for them. I only pray they get some much needed help
before they act out on such desires.
Hopefully this clarifies things for my readers and my enemies over
at perverted justice, absolutezerounited, jankruska.com (aka April
Butler), and Petra Luna who are intent on making me into something I am
NOT. Everyone else will have to draw their own conclusions.
I will reiterate that I am NOT a pedophile and that my court
documents prove that. I have NO child molestation conviction in
Massachusetts or anywhere else on the planet. Their claims on these
matters are factually false. It sickens me to the very core of my being
what these people are doing to me and have done to so many others
without any justification whatsoever.
Many people in my life have been guilty of the exact same conduct
as I was 16 years ago- members of my immediate and extended families,
friends and acquaintances. In the eyes of the law anyone under 18 is
unable to consent to sexual activity, so if you are over 18 and your
partner is other, you should technically be a registered sex offender.
All it takes is someone to make an accusation or a complaint (as I did
the victim’s Aunt in my case.) I have no doubt that there are hundreds
of thousands, if not millions of Americans who have engaged in illegal
sexual conduct, whether they knew it or not but got lucky than no one
complained. They have no criminal record and they aren’t forced to
register as sex offenders, but they are by no means any less guilty.
Walking free among us, unregistered and un-named. What about you, the
reader?
Now that everyone knows the real story about Jan Kruska what will
you do?
Will the members of Perverted Justice continue to threaten me and
my family, harass us, and/or attempt to beat me or kill me? They claim
they are concerned for the emotional well being of all children, but by
doing what they are doing they are revealing their true colors. To
Perverted Justice and the self proclaimed band of “Evil Vigilantes” I
say YOU, not me, are putting my children in harms way- emotionally and
physically. Yet you seem to care less. It’s becoming quite clear that
your true motives behind what you do have NOTHING to do with children
and EVERYTHING to do with making money.
You and everyone else now knows where to find me now and you have
endangered my children in the process by taking the law into your own
hands and pursuing a law abiding citizen, a wife, and mother of four.
You have upset my entire family and defamed my name as well as that of
my family. The only reason you chose to go after me is because I am
outspoken against these laws. I have seen far too many decent people’s
lives be needlessly destroyed by them. They have been lumped in with the
most horrendous offenders for crimes that do not even begin to compare
with the crimes for which these laws are named, yet all are being
treated equally.
It is law enforcements place to disclose my identity and
whereabouts IF they see fit. Not yours. By your doing so you are in fact
violating multiple criminal statutes which could end up in the public
registry being taken down altogether. Is that what you want? I have not
harmed you. The only person who has the right to a gripe with me, if one
exists, is my victim, and since he consented no harm has been done –
this is also talked about in my court records, both by the judge and
prosecutor, so please don’t take my word for it.
So there it is - the truth. Plain and simple, nothing more and
nothing less. As I told Perverted Justice and their cyber-thug coward
ass fiends from the beginning I have nothing to hide. They have not
exposed anything, but they have outright lied and incited vigilantism
against me, my family, and my property. I hope you are all satisfied.
The truth will set me free and after all this, if you still feel
the need to come anywhere near my family be forewarned, you will be
doing so at your own risk because we are quite legally, heavily armed
and waiting. We will take all steps necessary to protect our family. |
