It wasn’t until her husband began searching the Internet that Deborah Boehle understood why they were receiving phone calls for their 9-year-old daughter from strange men at all hours of the day and night.
What the Joliet resident found was that someone had posted Internet messages claiming the girl was sexually active with her father and wanted to have sex with other men. The messages appeared on 14 different Web sites, and included the family’s phone number.
Boehle said when they complained to local police, they were told to call the FBI, only to be advised by the FBI, to contact local police.
So what started as a series of disturbing phone calls turned into a nightmare odyssey that eventually led the Boehles to move 40 miles away and brought Deborah before a House panel Thursday.
“I can only imagine how many other families have lived through this but gave up when they were told by law enforcement that nothing could be done. We don’t need any more laws named after dead girls,” Boehle told the House Judiciary Crime Subcommittee.
She urged approval of a proposal submitted by Rep. Jerry Weller (R-Ill.) that would make it a felony, punishable by up to 5 years in prison, to target a minor under 16 for sexually explicit messages or contacts.
The bill is one of several under consideration for inclusion in legislation aimed at cracking down on pedophiles who stalk children through the Internet or contact them for illegal sexual activity.
“Those who commit these heinous crimes must be sent a message that they will be punished swiftly and severely,” said the legislation’s sponsor, Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.).
While no criminal charges have been filed in the Boehle case, the family claims to have traced the Internet postings about their daughter to a neighbor, and have filed a civil suit against him seeking $3 million in damages for emotional distress. The neighbor has denied being the source of the Internet postings.
Boehle’s long march to Washington began in the summer of 1996, after she learned that the postings, if they could be investigated and prosecuted under Illinois laws, would be treated as a low-grade misdemeanor.
Mike Sullivan, a Naperville police officer who is an expert in Internet crime and helped Joliet police investigate the source of the postings, said the Boehle case was unique in that it included disclosures of how pedophiles could get in touch with the victim.
Sullivan said that at one point during the investigation, police found that an hour after the Boehles’ daughter went outside to play, a description of her activities appeared on the Internet.
“That’s just plain disturbing and frightening,” Sullivan said.
As a result of her family’s ordeal, Boehle, a journalist, told the House panel Thursday:
“My liberal opinion about freedom of speech literally changed within a split second as my husband read to me the messages that he had found.”
