How A Private Investigator Exposed A Pedophilic American Judge

In order to expose pedophiles, Bradley Willman, a Canadian anti-pedophile activist born in 1980, conducted his own private investigations. He utilized a Trojan horse and at one time had free access to between 2,000 and 3,000 computers that had been used to view websites of interest to pedophiles. Judge Ronald Kline of the California Superior Court was sentenced to more than two years in prison in 2007 for having child pornography in his possession.

Willman described himself as a "private computer cop." Willman started tracking and looking into persons who downloaded child porn via the Internet in the late 1990s. Before the year 2000, Willman created a Trojan horse, a special kind of computer program, which he utilized to carry out his research.

The Trojan horse seemed to be a photo file attached to a message when it was actually a program file. Unknowingly downloading the Trojan horse when downloading videos from the pedophile website, Willman was able to access, search for, and extract files from the infected computer once it had been downloaded. The user would frequently be unaware that it was active on his or her computer.

When the program began to function as I had anticipated, Willman said, "My entire aim was to help kids." Willman estimated that his Trojan Horse allowed him access to between 2,000 and 3,000 computers that had previously been used to browse websites popular with child pornography, including those of law enforcement officers, soldiers, social workers, priests, and judges.

He spent up to 16 hours a day alone and in the dark watching hundreds of people who had downloaded the program, secretly reading their e-mail, and following every move they made online. He skipped the prom and didn't have any friends in school. He began compiling data on the intended targets who downloaded the program. He recorded everything as he trailed them for almost three years.

Focusing on alleged child molesters and child porn producers, he classified each file according to the level of risk it posed.

Exposed Superior Judge

Judge Ronald C. Kline of the California Superior Court downloaded the Trojan horse to his computer in the first few days of May 2000. Thanks to the Trojan, Willman could keep an eye on Kline's PC in California from his location in British Columbia. Willman downloaded bits of Kline's diary from her computer between May 2000 and mid-April 2001.

Willman sent portions of a journal on Kline's hard disks, with the last entry dated March 18, 2001, to the website of the pedophile-watchdog group, PedoWatch in April 2001. The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office received the journal from PedoWatch and forwarded it to the California Attorney General's Office, which then forwarded it to the City of Irvine Police Department.

When Irvine police investigated Kline's home in November 2001, they discovered more than 1,500 child pornographic photos on the computer. Additionally, child porn was discovered on Kline's courthouse computer. Due to the widespread media coverage of this incident, Kline finally decided against running for judge again.

Ronald C. Kline, a former judge for the Orange County Superior Court, admitted to having child pornography on his home computer in December 2005, putting an end to a four-year legal fight during which Kline was placed under house arrest.

A conviction at trial might have resulted in a 30-year jail sentence for Kline, but a plea deal reduced the potential sentence to only 27 to 33 months.

Kline was given the harshest punishment a former judge could receive in June 2006, when the state Commission on Judicial Performance forbade him from working for state courts.

Kline received a 27-month prison term in February 2007 for having child pornography in his possession.

William still lives a private life; keeping his profile almost hidden from the public.