New Haven Independent

Blumenthal said he was the leader of a group of more than 40 attorneys general from across the nation trying to force the online classified ad site to shut down its erotic service section and monitor other ads seeking such services. They met with the site’s execs in New York Tuesday.

The site received national attention after a medical student was charged in the slaying of a woman who offered massage services on the site and was found shot dead in a Boston hotel. The student, Philip Markoff, 22, is also a suspect in the robbery of another woman who advertised on Craigslist.

Three of the group of attorneys general, including Blumenthal, held the meeting Tuesday with Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster. They said the site had failed to make progress promised at an earlier meeting toward preventing the site from being used for criminal activity.

Buckmaster failed to return an email seeking comment. He issued a statement calling the meeting “productive.”

(Click here to read the terms of use Craigslist has posted in a section used in part for prostitution.)

Blumenthal was asked Tuesday to compare Craigslist to the weekly Advocate papers distributed in Connecticut, which also contain sex ads that in the past have been used for prostitution. Blumenthal said Craigslist is “much more explicit and graphic and pornographic, with visual images that make Craigslist an online brothel and a very explicit one.” It is “different from the back pages” of a weekly paper, he said.

The web ads “enable illegal activity” of prostitution, which he called “far from a victimless crime.” He said the activities that the site advertised promoted “human trafficking and child exploitation, even drug dealing and murder,” as he have discovered, he said, referring to the Boston slaying.

Craigslist “has a moral a very likely legal responsibility to stop illegal activity on its premises” just as if it were made of bricks and mortar, he said.

He said the Craigslist representatives were told they had days to find a way to shut down he erotic portion of the site.

Blumenthal said that the site is protected by the First Amendment and other laws from being prosecuted for its part in prostitution and other crimes. But he added the Craigslist representatives with whom he and some other attorneys general met realized it would not be in their best interest to be in the sights of 40 attorneys general from across the nation.