World In Brief (9/14/06)

Case dismissed by police, but not by the public

By Chris Colgin, The Dallas… Case dismissed by police, but not by the public

By Chris Colgin, The Dallas Morning News

DALLAS — Two years ago, Tommy Cison, a 21-year-old living at his parents’ home, entered a Minnesota chat room.

He met “lizzie—luvs—fun—mpls,” who claimed to be a 13-year-old girl but was actually a Perverted Justice volunteer. They chatted online for about 30 minutes.

Those 30 minutes changed the lives of Cison and his family forever.

When Cison agreed to meet the girl at a mall, a news crew from KSTP-TV (Channel 5), the Minneapolis ABC affiliate, secretly videotaped him waiting for “lizzie” — who didn’t show.

The TV crew had been tipped off by Perverted Justice.

A transcript from the online chat with Cison was forwarded to the local Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. But the county attorney wouldn’t support the task force’s request for a search warrant for Cison’s computer based on the chat alone.

Detective Ed Egly of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Department contacted Cison and asked for permission to search his hard drive. Cison agreed, but police found no evidence of a crime on the computer.

But KSTP ran the story, which featured a confrontation with Cison with a microphone thrust into his face, in April 2004. The story explained how Perverted Justice worked and showed footage of Cison at the mall. He had no comment.

Through his mother, Cison also declined to talk to The Dallas Morning News. Officials at KSTP also declined to comment.

A day after the story aired, Cison’s brother, a junior in high school, came home and asked his parents, “What’s this about Tommy being a pervert?” said his mother, Julie Cison.

Cison explained the situation to his confused parents, and they contacted Egly, who suggested they hire a lawyer.

One morning soon after, Julie Cison answered a phone call at her home and heard, “I just want you to know that Tommy is the new poster boy for Perverted-Justice.com.”

She went to the Web site and was surprised to find her home address, her home phone number and other personal information about two of her sons, her daughter, her husband and herself posted in the “follow-up forum” section.

“Tommy has never been convicted of anything, and yet they still have this information posted about us,” she said. “My family doesn’t deserve this.”

She said that the Cisons were harassed for the next several months and that Tommy received a death threat on the family’s answering machine.

“Basically, they wreck people’s lives,” said Philip Villaume, the family’s attorney. “First they entrap them, then, if they can’t get the police to arrest this guy, they post this person’s information, which results in harassment.”

Blair says he will resign within a year, but remains vague on details

By Tom Hundley, Chicago Tribune

LONDON — Fighting to prolong his political life and preserve his legacy in the face of an escalating Labor Party revolt, Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Thursday that he would resign within a year.

But Blair, whose standing with voters has suffered because of his close alliance with President Bush, refused to set a specific timetable for his departure. And his assurance that this month’s annual Labor Party conference would be his last as the party’s leader might not be enough to quell the mutiny.

Blair, who just 16 months ago led Labor to an unprecedented third consecutive term in power, sounded slightly bitter and looked uncomfortable when he made his announcement in a northwest London schoolyard.

He said he would have preferred to orchestrate his departure “in my own way” and insisted peevishly that the “precise timetable has to be left up to me.”

The end has not quite arrived for Blair, but Thursday’s announcement signals the beginning of the final chapter, which will most likely be a period of uncertainty in which Blair will struggle against the paralysis that comes with being a lame duck.