Hollywood Executive Demands Change For Online Dating Sites During Sexual Assault Awareness Month

WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif., April 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- While Sexual Awareness Month is underway during the month of April, one woman is speaking out about her sexual assault experience and calling for change in the world of online dating. A successful Hollywood entertainment executive, who wishes to be named as Jane Doe, at this time, was recently sexually assaulted. She is standing up and joining the chorus of victims who are not afraid to report a sex crime and call for more responsiveness to the subject.  

Jane Doe, an Ivy League graduate, currently working in television and film, met Alan Paul Wurtzel, on Match.com in 2010. The two set up a date, after which, Mr. Wurtzel viciously sexually assaulted her. Basic screening would have revealed Mr. Wurztel's prior history and prevented this attack. Felony charges against Mr. Wurtzel are currently pending in the Los Angeles Superior Court [Case # BA373188].

"This horrific ordeal completely blindsided me because I had considered myself savvy about online dating safety," states Jane Doe. "It started with what seemed like a pleasant date at Urth Cafe in West Hollywood. Things quickly turned into a nightmare, beyond my control. Everyone needs to be aware of the dangers in online dating and realize that it can happen to them."

Mr. Wurtzel was not a garden variety online dating site member. He was a serial sexual predator, as cursory examination of public records would have disclosed. His record in Los Angeles County, California [Central Arraignment Court Case Number LAA5CR02442-01] alone indicates six separate convictions for sexual battery in the period preceding his attack on Jane Doe.

"Online dating sites could begin to protect innocent members of the public from convicted sexual predators who are easily discoverable, as was Mr. Wurtzel," states Mark L. Webb, Esq., Jane Doe's attorney. "During Sexual Assault Awareness Month, we are calling for reputable online dating sites to consider voluntarily instituting a basic screening process that disqualifies from membership anyone who has a documented history of sexual assault. This history could be rapidly uncovered through simple, inexpensive technological means, roughly estimated at less than five dollars a subscriber."

Jane Doe and her attorney Mark L. Webb are available for interviews.

CONTACT: Jim Strzalkowski of Media Giants, [e-mail], [phone]; or Heath Hamaguchi of HMR, [e-mail], [phone].

SOURCE The Law Offices of Mark L. Webb, Esq.

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