Updates to our Terms of Use

We are updating our Terms of Use. Please carefully review the updated Terms before proceeding to our website.

Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Prosecutor Wants Personal Info Off the Web

LOS ANGELES (CN) - Three people-search and background-check websites jeopardize the safety of a state prosecutor by listing his home address and telephone number, the prosecutor claims in court.

California Deputy Attorney General John Doe sued Radaris America and its principal Edgar Lopin, Instant Check Mate, and Inome dba Intelius, in Superior Court.

All three websites allow users to pay a fee to download people's personal information, including criminal background checks, phone numbers, and court judgments.

Doe, who has been at the Attorney's General Office since November 2012, asks the court to enjoin the websites from displaying his name.

"Plaintiff spearheads the investigation and prosecution of serious crimes with local, national and international implications. Plaintiff Doe is working on matters where victims, witnesses, and law enforcement agents have been harassed, intimidated and threatened," the 9-page lawsuit states.

"Plaintiff Doe has repeatedly expressed his concern for his and his family's safety to defendants; despite this, defendants persist in their inaction to remove plaintiff Doe's home address and telephone number from the Internet."

Doe claims the businesses assured him repeatedly that they had removed his personal details from their websites, but he was able to visit the websites and buy his home address information.

He claims that the websites' refusal to remove the information violates a section of the California Government Code barring any person or entity from publicly displaying such information if a public official has made a written demand for removal.

Doe is represented by Maurice Pessah with the Pessah Law Group of Beverly Hills.

Instant Checkmate told Courthouse News it "very much respects personal privacy."

"We have been in touch with plaintiff's counsel and are investigating the allegations," Checkmate said in an email. "We expect that the case will soon be amicably resolved."

Radaris and Intelius did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Categories / Uncategorized

Subscribe to Closing Arguments

Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.

Loading...