Images of criminal defense attorney J. Robert Andrews, 53, chat logs coming from one of his Yahoo screen names and personal information appeared on the Perverted-Justice.com website last Monday.
The logs, captured by a Perverted-Justice user named “rachel_west90” who posed as a 13-year-old Ohio girl, feature graphic sexual discussions with a user that goes by the screen name “manofdarkneedsl951” and identified himself as a 53-year-old named Rob and gave his phone number and email address in order to arrange a meeting with the girl.
Also posted were live images pulled off his webcam that apparently show the 53-year-old attorney masturbating.
Within days of the chat transcript and personal information being posted on the website, emails had been sent by concerned website members to Andrews’ partners at the law firm of Schuh & Goldberg, LLP. Those same people also contacted legal organizations that Andrews was a member of, including the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Ohio Bar Association.
Steve Schuh, another partner at Schuh and Goldberg, quickly issued a statement saying that Andrews’ resignation had been accepted on Nov. 18 and that the firm was “shocked and deeply disturbed by the allegations.”
In addition, concerned site members also attempted to contact the screen names given during the chat sessions to talk about what had happened.
At one point, a user named “justicebot1975” contacted Andrews. During the conversation, Andrews claimed that his Yahoo account had been hacked and that he wouldn’t have been using a web camera at the time the event occurred anyway.
“I would never be on a cam at 10:30,” wrote Andrews on Perverted-Justice.com. “Wife awake.”
Later in the same conversation, Andrews alternatively claimed to have been out at a movie on the night in question and that justicebot was trying to extort money from him. Andrews then threatened to bring legal action against the user and the website.
In a conversation with a different user, Andrews seemed to express regret for the event and said he was contemplating killing himself.
“I am under incredible stress,” wrote Andrews. “I have been drinking too much. Sleeping little.”
Andrews also said he had been engaging in “risky unexplainable behavior,” owed “sums of money that [he] can’t believe,” and was suffering severe marital problems.
He ended the conversation by writing, “right now I wish I owned a gun.”
Andrews is a former instructor at the Ohio Police Officer Training Academy.
