Paul Short has pled guilty and accepted a plea agreement in Illinois. Mr. Short's chat-log was just posted today, since the case is now officially completed.

Here are Harvey's comments on the matter...

Contributor Harvey: On Saturday, March 20th, I was approached in chat by fleet_captain_jaime_wolfe. He was very clearly a real risk to children, and there was no phone number that he could be reached at. As a result, he was not postable, since we have to have a verifiable phone number. My initial thought was to get someone to the Blockbuster to take photographs of him and his license plate; however, given how dangerous this man seems, It was determined that this was a bad idea.

Additionally, further research demonstrated that there was reason to believe that he might have already kidnapped a child. Perverted Justice as a rule does not contact police first; however, when we have reason to believe that there is an actual child in danger, we do so. This was such a case. The police in Chicago were contacted, and opened an investigation. They met fleet_captain_jaime_wolfe at the Blockbuster and arrested him then.

Mr. Short originally entered a plea of \"not guilty\" with his public defender, before changing his mind nearly three months later, and taking a prosecution deal. Under the deal, Mr. Short pled guilty to one of seven felony counts of indecent solicitation, and has been given two years probation, listed as a sex offender, and a fine.

You can read copies of the investigation and charges at the following addresses in JPG format:

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Was the plea bargain appropriate given the nature of his chat? In our opinion, no. Paul Short's chat was extremely vicious, and literally evil. It is unfortunate that the plea agreement is so light, and we cannot imagine the rationale of the prosecutor working this case. However, you are as always, free to make up your own mind on that count.

Update: You can make up your mind with the documents if you'd like.

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We would like to thank the detectives who arrested Mr. Short at the blockbuster, and the outstanding work they did on the case. The cooperation between ourselves and those two officers is a model for how we do business.

We hope Mr. Short enjoyed his time in prison, and that this case is a wake-up call for him to fix his life. However, we would like Mr. Short's neighbors and community in Arizona to make sure they are aware of Paul Short and what his presence may mean to their community.