Brad Pistotnik’s ‘reputation management’ provider sentenced to probation for threats

The man hired by Wichita lawyer Brad Pistotnik for “reputation management services” has been sentenced to probation and must pay a fine after pleading guilty in a cyberattack threat case.

Computer programmer David Dorsett, 37, was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court to three years of federal probation and a $2,000 fine, U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister said in a news release. Dorsett previously pleaded guilty to two counts of making extortionate threats through the internet.

Dorsett had faced up to two years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000 on each of the two counts, but his plea deal called for probation.

As part of his plea, Dorsett admitted that in September 2014 he offered “reputation management services” to Pistotnik, an attorney who is also known as “The Bull.” Prosecutors said that emails between the men showed Pistotnik asking Dorsett, “Any luck removing that bad website I showed you?” and “tell me how we get rid of it.”

He had wanted Dorsett to remove internet postings of a negative consumer review and a Kansas Supreme Court disciplinary opinion against himself, prosecutors said. Dorsett sent a barrage of emails to websites Leagle.com and RipoffReport.com demanding that the information be removed. Pistotnik paid Dorsett for sending the threats.

The review on the web page prosecutors linked to in court documents claims, in part, that “you are better off hiring his brother.” The disciplinary opinion cited in court documents was from 1993, where two formal complaints brought against Pistotnik were based on “a pattern of repeated criminal offenses.” He was ultimately suspended from practicing law in Kansas for a year.

“If you don’t remove it we will begin targeting your advertisers and explain that this will stop happening to them once they pull their ads,” Dorsett’s emails said, in part, according to prosecutors.

Pistotnik previously pleaded guilty to three misdemeanor counts of being an accessory after the fact to making an extortionate threat over the internet. A judge ordered him to pay a $375,000 fine and $55,200 in restitution. He will not serve time in prison or on probation. The fine, restitution and lack of imprisonment or probation were recommended by both parties in a plea deal.