October 27, 2006
Press Release

Net provider apologizes for role in raid on wrong house

The communications company blamed for a botched child pornography raid in Pittsylvania County offered a public apology Thursday.

"All the parties involved feel terribly sorry about what's happened," said FairPoint Communications Inc. spokeswoman Jennifer Sharpe.

Wednesday, the Bedford County Sheriff's Office issued a statement that the office's Internet Crimes Against Children task force, Operation Blue Ridge Thunder, searched the wrong house in Gretna on Sept. 23 because FairPoint had given them the wrong address. The Pittsylvania County Sheriff's Office also participated in the raid.

NBA star Shaquille O'Neal, who is a Bedford County sheriff's deputy and affiliated with Blue Ridge Thunder, was present at the raid.

Sharpe said FairPoint always tries to offer timely responses to court orders and subpoenas, and to make sure that information is correct. The personnel responsible for giving the address to Bedford investigators believed it was correct at the time, she said.

The sheriff's office said Wednesday that three days after the search warrant was executed, FairPoint alerted them that investigators had been given the wrong address.

-- Mike Allen

Contact: Robin Sundquist – Admin Officer – 540.586.4800

Story courtesy of The Roanoke Times.