Lawyer wants jail photos removed from SC websites

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A Columbia lawyer wants jails across South Carolina to stop posting pictures of people who are arrested.

Attorney Seth Rose says a website called mugshots.com is taking those photos and posting them on their own site. The site then charges people up to $399 to remove the photos, even if charges were dropped, scrubbed from someone’s record or the person was found not guilty. Rose calls that extortion.

Rose is a Richland County councilman and has convinced the county jail to remove the photos from its website. He now wants lawmakers to figure out a solution statewide.

A phone number for Mugshots.com was not answered Monday. The company refused to speak to a reporter at The Daily Gamecock, which first wrote about the issue last week (http://bit.ly/RD8Eyb).