Leniency Sought for Crusader

Remember Mike Echols? Probably not . . . unless you happen to be a member of the North American Man-Boy Love Assn. (NAMBLA).

Echols, a self-styled children’s rights crusader, made headlines in early 1992 (View, March 10) by infiltrating a NAMBLA chapter in San Francisco and surreptitiously videotaping some meetings of the secretive pro-pedophile group at a public library for a local TV station. The news reports outraged parents and prompted many gay activists to denounce NAMBLA, which has long sought legitimacy by allying itself with the gay community.

Although his detective work was praised by parents, Echols couldn’t accept kudos publicly because he is himself a fugitive from justice. In 1989 he fled the jurisdiction of a Colorado court after a burglary conviction. Echols claims his actions were justified and his life was in danger if he stayed. Since then, he has lived under an alias.

San Francisco attorney Albert J. Boro Jr. recently appealed to Colorado Gov. Roy Romer for a commutation of Echols’ sentence, citing “his important work in . . . exposing child molesters” among his virtues. But so far, Colorado officials seem unimpressed.

“The defendant,” explained prosecutors in a Feb. 2 letter advising Romer, “has a repeated history of disrespect for the law.”