[Vision2020] Carl + online intros = bad idea

[Scott Dredge]

For anyone wishing to contact Carl Westberg Jr. via
Joan's web site, I thought I might offer a word of
caution.  Online introductions are fraught with
hazards.  Personally, I can't even tell if Carl
Westberg and Dan Carscallen are actually two separate
people in real life.  They seem like alter egos to me.
 Both are equally humorous.  One leans left, the other
leans right.  Suspiciously, a posting by Carl is
almost  immediately followed by a posting from Dan.

Anyway, getting back to the point at hand, think twice
about contacting Carl online.  I was about to contact
Carl myself when I just happened to read the article
below that was printed in the San Jose Mercury News
yesterday and I changed my mind.

-Scott


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/10808323.htm

Posted on Thu, Feb. 03, 2005

Sex-crime site a database, not a date base

By Dan Reed

Mercury News

Important notice to all the state's registered sex
offenders: The now publicly available Megan's Law Web
site is not an online dating service.

Glen Westberg, 35, of Cupertino, a convicted child
molester, recently found that out. He's expected to be
charged today with a misdemeanor for trying to set up
trysts with other convicted sex offenders he found by
searching the database, available on the Internet
since December.

Westberg allegedly even referred his potential dates
-- about four or five other men -- to his own picture
and profile on the site, for him a Match.com for sex
offenders.

Here's how the police caught on in a case that appears
to be a first of its kind in the state.

Westberg logged on to the site from a public library,
he told police.

The Web site, meant to allow the public to learn of
registered sex offenders living near them, lists more
than 63,000 criminals, many with photos.

Westberg sent a letter suggesting a meeting to one man
who was on probation and uneasy about the offer. He
showed it to his probation officer, who told him to
turn it over to the San Mateo County Sexual Assault
Felony Enforcement Task Force.

Bill Ahern, commander of the task force, called
Westberg, implying he was the man who received the
letter.

Then they set up a date to meet last Thursday at a
Starbucks in Redwood City. Ahern brought along an
officer who resembled the letter-receiver.

``He didn't hit on the guy,'' Ahern said, ``so we
approached him.''

Soon Westberg -- a warehouse worker who was convicted
of child molestation in 1992 and 1998 -- was at the
sheriff's station, admitting what he had done, Ahern
said.

He had found his prospective partners by searching for
their convictions and finding men who enjoyed oral
copulation. Then off went the letters. Westberg told
police he'd received no responses.

In a search of his apartment, officers confiscated two
computers, which will be examined for content.

It's against the law for convicted sex registrants to
contact others from the Web site, Ahern said, because
the government doesn't want them conspiring to abuse
others.

If convicted, Westberg faces up to six months in
county jail, a $1,000 fine or both.