Digital Vigilantes
Women's e-mail chain helps nab suspect, but at what price?
May 15, 2007 — -- Late last month a naked man appeared at the door of a business in Santa Fe, N.M.
Spooked by a series of unsolved rapes and attempted rapes that have haunted the city since last fall, a woman who worked there slammed the door before the man could enter. She called 911, but when police arrived the man was gone.
So she downloaded still pictures of the man from the business' security camera video and after dubbing the tape for the police, e-mailed the pictures to hundreds of women in the Santa Fe area, warning them to be on the lookout.
The pictures quickly found their way into the hands of the local press -- who temporarily withheld their broadcast at the request of police.
Two weeks after the incident, to the overwhelming relief of city residents, the man on the tape was arrested and charged with breaking and entering and indecent exposure, Santa Fe police told ABC News' Law & Justice unit.
But whether or not prosecutors will be able to convict him of those charges or in relation to other crimes is still undetermined.
Witnesses' Memories 'Easily Tainted'
In spamming the city with images of the man -- identified by police as an out-of-state registered sex offender named David Giba -- the woman may have irrevocably tainted the witness memory of other victims and dashed prosecutors' best hopes for a solid conviction.
Photo lineup expert Gary Wells said other victims' and witnesses' memories were contaminated by seeing the e-mailed pictures. The fact that the images were so widely distributed, published and broadcast makes it virtually impossible for witness identifications to be used in court to convict the man, he said.
"It hasn't made our job any easier, that's for sure,'' Santa Fe Police Capt. Gary Johnson told ABC News.
The situation has raised painful questions in Santa Fe about the ever-shifting line between law-enforcement needs and the rights of crime victims in the digital age.
Giba was arraigned in a New Mexico court yesterday, but because the breaking and entering charge is a felony, the magistrate judge reportedly did not allow him to enter a plea, according to news station KRQE. The judge said he could do that in district court.
