Web site down after filing of suit
Sex-convict registry critic besieged by harsh online criticism
By Kim Smith
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
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.
● Contact reporter Kim Smith at 573-4241 or kimsmith@azstarnet.com.
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