Pedophile Blogger Banned from Oregon Bus
A self-proclaimed pedophile who has sparked innovative legal efforts to restrict his activities in Southern California has now reportedly had the same effect in the neighboring state of Oregon.
Jack McClellan, who says he only looks at girls and doesn’t act on his admittedly illicit interest in them, was recently banned from the Portland, Ore., bus system for 60 days by authorities who say they were justified in doing so by his Internet postings, reports the Portland Oregonian. Local police, who were apparently familiar with him because of earlier publicity, cited him for misuse of transit—McClellan says he was indeed riding the bus for extended periods to keep warm—and possession of a controlled substance.
Citing a person for a crime based on his or her Web site postings is “not a typical approach,” admits Mary Fetsch, a spokeswoman for the local transit authority. But, she says, the agency believes it has the authority to do so, even though transit police apparently found no drugs in McClellan’s possession and only read that he used them on his Web site.
McClellan, who has never been charged with a sex crime, now reportedly plans to return to the Los Angeles area. In preparation for the move, he has already changed the name of his Internet site, Portland Girl Love, to Los Angeles Girl Love, the Oregonian writes.
As discussed in previous ABAJournal.com posts, he was the subject earlier this year of an innovative injunction requested by two Los Angeles area attorneys. It prohibited him from coming within 10 yards of a child anywhere in the state of California. Subsequently arrested on suspicion of violating it, he was a short time later released and the case was dropped when the court order was determined to be invalid.
His penchant for publicity and admitted pedophilia, along with the aggressive efforts to restrict his ogling of girls that not surprisingly have resulted, have attracted national media attention. Among those who have weighed in on the situation are Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts, who points out that this “reprehensible freak” nonetheless has a constitutional right to speak about his odious sexual interests, so long as he doesn’t act on them.
