Police department refuses to take man's pic off of website after being acquitted of soliciting a prostitute; wants to inform public of ''successful outcome''

The Journal Star
Mar. 15, 2006

PEORIA - A second man featured on the Peoria police Web site has been found not guilty of soliciting sex, but his mug shot will remain until August.

"Why are they arresting people when they're not committing a crime?" asked Jason, who was found "not guilty" last week by a Peoria County jury.

"I feel like I've been slandered," said the 26-year-old Pekin man, who requested his last name not be published.

He is among 29 men featured since July on the Peoria Police Department's Web site, which includes the mug shots and personal information of those arrested on solicitation of sex charges, commonly called "johns." The information is posted for one year, regardless of how the cases are decided in court.

"I am not guilty. I didn't do what they are cracking down on," Jason said. "I would never cheat on my wife."

Police Chief Steven Settingsgaard declined to comment about any specific case but said recently it's only fair to leave the information posted so the public can see when someone is acquitted.

"If your picture appears for several months, and the public knows of your arrest, they will not know you were found not guilty if you are simply removed," Settingsgaard wrote in response to other messages on the subject posted on the Journal Star's Web site.

If a "john" is acquitted, a red-letter caption appears under his mug shot saying he is "not guilty."

"Leaving the photo with the indication that you were found not guilty informs the same public of your successful outcome," Settingsgaard wrote.

Apparently, the public is interested. After the Journal Star began a three-day series last week examining those arrested on solicitation of sex charges, the Police Department's Web site, www.peoriapd.com, was flooded with traffic.

On March 5, the day the series started, 3,756 people viewed the "johns" information on the department's home page, an increase of more than a 1,000 percent over the previous week's daily average of 315 views.

That number jumped even more on March 6, when prostitutes' information also was added. More than 11,600 views were recorded that day, and the week's daily average was 4,176 views.

Jason says he's not happy that many people still see his mug shot each day, adding he's endured unneeded stress since his arrest in August.

At trial last week, the defense said Jason and his friends were riding their motorcycles in the 1600 block of Northeast Madison Avenue when they saw who they thought was a prostitute.

"He was dared to go up to her and say something to her," Jason's defense attorney, Jerry Hall, said Monday. "He was on a dare and was in over his head."

According to the police report, Jason stopped his motorcycle and began talking to the woman, who actually was a police decoy. Police say he asked about prices for sexual favors and agreed to meet the woman at her house, which led to his arrest.

Hall said although his client was talking to a prostitute, he did not break the law since there was no exchange of money or anything of value offered to the decoy, something required in the solicitation law.

"What (the officer) interpreted to be an offer was not there," Hall said. "She was saying, 'I'll do this for so many dollars.' I told the jury that's no different than me going to a car dealership and asking about the price of cars."

Settingsgaard, however, stands behind his officers and defends his department's Web postings, regardless of a court verdict.

"If you are on our Web site, you approached an undercover officer and either offered money for sex, or sex for money. That is it," he wrote in his message on the Journal Star site.

"Not being charged does not negate that you were arrested. Not being convicted does not negate your arrest," he wrote.