Sex Offender Registries

Sex offender suspected in other assaults

2006-06-08T06:48:00.000-04:00

PICKENS, S.C. - A registered sex offender suspected of strangling a Clemson University student with her bikini has become a suspect in at least two other recent sexual assaults, in Alabama and Tennessee, authorities said Wednesday.

Jerry Buck Inman has been talking to investigators since his arrest late Tuesday near his parents' home in Dandridge, Tenn., Jefferson County, Tenn., Sheriff David Davenport said.

"It seems like he was just wandering around, finding vulnerable people — women — and preying on them and conducting sexual assaults and getting progressively worse," Davenport said. "This may be just the tip of the iceberg."

Inman, 35, was arrested on warrants for murder, rape and kidnapping in the death of Clemson student Tiffany Marie Souers two weeks ago. DNA from her apartment led authorities to Inman.

"He didn't know the victim," Davenport said Wednesday. "It is our information he was driving around in the (victim's) neighborhood and saw her and he liked her looks."

Davenport said he expects Inman will also be charged with a May 23 attempted rape in DeKalb County, Ala., and a May 24 rape in Sevierville, Tenn., "because he has made some admissions that he did those things."

He said the victims had identified Inman from his tattoos. Florida prison records indicate Inman has several skull tattoos and an image of a bat tattooed on his neck.

DeKalb County Sheriff's Investigator Rhonda Jackson said Wednesday that a friend of a 24-year-old victim in a Rainsville, Ala., assault had recognized Inman from news reports. The investigator called Tennessee authorities with details of the case Wednesday morning, and Inman confessed to the Alabama assault, Jackson said.

Jackson said charges would be announced against him in Alabama later Wednesday.

In his first court appearance Wednesday in Tennessee, Inman told a judge that he wouldn't fight extradition to South Carolina to face charges in Souers' death.

Souers, a 20-year-old civil engineering student from the St. Louis suburb of Ladue, Mo., was wearing only a bra when she was found May 26 on the bedroom floor in her off-campus apartment. The bikini top was still around her neck, and her wrists and ankles were bound.

Inman's DNA matched samples taken from Souers' apartment, said Robert Stewart, division chief of the South Carolina State Law Enforcement.

Souers' brother said he was relieved to learn Inman had been arrested.

"I gave my mom a hug and she said she felt happy for the first time in a while," 16-year-old Trevor Souers said.

Inman was registered as a sex offender in Florida and North Carolina. Davenport said his department had been told by South Carolina authorities to look for Inman, whose family moved to the area from Florida in 2000. Authorities staked out the relatives' homes and spotted Inman driving by in a red Chevy Blazer around 11:45 p.m.

Chief Deputy Bob McCoig pulled him over and arrested him without incident.

"His vehicle had several items in it that were related to the crimes," McCoig said Wednesday.

Inman arrived in Tennessee sometime in 2005 after he was released from prison in Florida, where he served 16 years for sex offenses. Authorities said he had listed the Dandridge homes of his parents and a sister on a sex offender registry.

After coming to Tennessee, Inman got a job with Shular Contracting Inc. for about two months on a condo construction site in Pigeon Forge, said Phil Loeffler, company vice president. When he didn't show up for work about two weeks ago, he lost his job.

Inman's mother, Vera McArthur, told The Greenville News that her son is bipolar and often suicidal and had no idea South Carolina authorities were looking for him. She said he had been doing construction work in Tennessee, but didn't think he had been in South Carolina recently.

More Than 1,100 Sex Offenders Captured

2006-04-30T09:34:00.000-04:00

More than 1,100 people wanted for violent sex crimes were among 9,037 fugitives arrested in a weeklong roundup, the Justice Department said Thursday.

The arrests were made as part of "Operation Falcon II," a 27-state dragnet timed to coincide with National Victims Rights Week.

This year's focus was on sex offenders, a group that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has made a priority in his 15 months at the Justice Department. Gonzales and U.S. Marshals Service Director John Clark were to discuss the results of the roundup later Thursday at a news conference in Washington.

During the week of April 17-23, federal, state and local authorities arrested 1,102 people wanted for violent sex crimes. It was the largest number ever captured in a single law enforcement operation, the department said. The arrests were made mainly in states west of the Mississippi River, and also in Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Among those caught was William Wisham, who authorities said failed to register as a sex offender when he moved to a motel in Victorville, Calif. Investigators found letters to children, notes explaining why he enjoys sex with children, child pornography, candy and methamphetamines.

Police are working to locate children listed in Wisham's diary-style notes and said initial indications are that Wisham used candy to lure at least one child.

In Oahu, Hawaii, police arrested Herbert Damwijk, who is wanted in Washington state on two counts of child rape and molestations against 8-year-old girls, the department said. He was arrested April 17 at his father's residence and awaits extradition to Washington.

Last week's sweep netted more than 10,000 fugitives, 10 times the average in a week, but just 1 percent of the 1 million fugitives in the FBI's national database.

Marshals arrested 35,500 federal fugitives for all of the government budget year that ended Sept. 30. They worked with state and local authorities to nab another 44,000 people, according to the Marshals' Web site.

U.S. Marshals Service

Two federal officials charged as child predators

2006-04-06T16:10:00.000-04:00

WASHINGTON - It's called "Operation Predator," a high-priority Department of Homeland Security program that battles against those who prey sexually on children.

Now, with the arrest Tuesday night of a department deputy secretary, at least two of the agency's own top personnel stand charged with just such offenses.

"It hammers home the fact that these individuals can be anywhere," said John Shehan, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which works closely with Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau.

Brian Doyle, deputy press secretary to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, faces 23 counts of using a computer to seduce a child and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. He was caught in a police Internet sting in which a detective pretended to be a 14-year-old girl.

Doyle, 55, allegedly bragged to the "girl" about his post at Homeland Security, and gave her his work telephone number when conversing with her about engaging in sex acts.

A spokeswoman for the ICE said Doyle was not directly involved in the Operation Predator program, and declined additional comment. The investigation of Doyle was initiated by the Polk County, Fla., sheriff's office, and the federal agency is cooperating with "the ongoing investigation," according to a Homeland Security statement.

The other Homeland Security official charged with a sexual offense involving a girl is veteran administrator Frank Figueroa, 49, the ICE special agent in charge of the agency's operations in central and northern Florida. Figueroa, who also ran the agency's El Paso office, has pleaded not guilty to charges he exposed and fondled himself before a teenage girl last year at a mall in Tampa.

Within ICE, Operation Predator is a high-profile program launched in 2003. It is dedicated to identifying, investigating and catching child predators, and reports more than 6,900 arrests nationwide since the program began, according to ICE.

Aside from cracking down on Internet predators and pornographers and those who traffic in child sexual slavery, the program also has created the National Child Victim Identification System.

Through this database, ICE, the FBI, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, U.S. Secret Service and other agencies can coordinate efforts to identify children who appear in pornography, rescue them and prosecute those who photograph and distribute the images.

Also a part of that network is the private, nonprofit missing-children center, which said it was "disappointed" to hear about the case against Doyle. Even so, Shehan said his organization remains an enthusiastic partner with ICE.

"It doesn't shake our confidence," Shehan said.

http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_national/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19860_4600623,00.html

Debra LaFave: Prosecutors Drop Student-Sex Charges

2006-03-22T06:46:00.000-05:00

State prosecutors decided Tuesday to drop charges against a former teacher accused of having sex with a 14-year-old student.

The decision, announced hours after a judge rejected a plea deal for Debra Lafave, means the victim won't have to testify.

"I know that I'm a good person, despite everything that has been said about me," Lafave, 25, told the media. "People can say what they want to."

Prosecutors and defense attorneys had urged the judge to accept the deal for the sake of the boy involved. A psychiatrist who examined the teenager told the judge at a previous hearing that the boy suffered extreme anxiety from the media coverage of the case and does not want to testify.

Lafave also brought up her own psychiatric help, CBS News.com reports.

"I'm going to be in therapy for a long time. Hopefully for the rest of my life," she said after prosecutors dropped charges against her. "It has helped me tremendously."

Marion County Circuit Judge Hale Stancil, however, said the lack of prison time for Lafave under the plea deal "shocks the conscience of this court," and he rejected it.

Assistant State Attorney Richard Ridgway, in explaining the decision to drop the charges, said: "The court may be willing to risk the well-being of the victims in this case in order to force it to trial. I am not."

Lafave already faces three years of house arrest and seven years probation in Hillsborough County, where she was charged with having sex with the same boy in a classroom and her home. She pleaded guilty Nov. 22 to two counts of lewd and lascivious battery under a plea deal there.

In Marion County, she was accused of having sex with the boy in a sport utility vehicle.

Lafave said at a news conference later Tuesday that she has bipolar disorder, and her attorney said she was getting treatment.

"I have a lot of things in my past that have unfortunately become public," Lafave said.

Hillsborough County prosecutor Mike Sinacore has said the victim's family had anticipated a trial, but the media attention prompted the boy's mother to push for a plea deal.

"There is no one that wanted to see Debra Lafave serve jail time more than myself," the boy's mother wrote in an e-mail to the Ocala Star-Banner over the weekend. But she said the welfare of her son was more important.

http://www.wwl.com/Article.asp?id=190008&spid=

Online Child Porn Sting - 27 Charged

2006-03-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

An Internet chat room that streamed video of live child molestations has been shut down, and 27 people have been charged with online child pornography offenses, federal authorities said Wednesday.

"We plan to prosecute them and others involved in this vile chat room to the fullest extent of the law," Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

"Molestation on demand and an ever-younger and more defenseless group of child victims are two of the most disturbing trends ... investigators see when they infiltrate child pornography rings," Assistant Secretary for ICE Julie Myers said earlier Wednesday. "This case had both."

Justice Department and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said all but one of the defendants has been arrested following an undercover sting operation aimed at closing down the Web site known as "Kiddypics & Kiddyvids."

Thirteen defendants were charged in the United States, and 14 were charged in other countries.

Gonzales said investigators were particularly disturbed by the live webcasting of the criminal acts.

He said seven child victims of molestation -- the youngest of whom was younger than 18 months -- have been identified.

Authorities said one suspect, identified as Brian Annoreno, allegedly produced live streaming video of him sexually molesting an infant.

Four defendants are alleged molesters, officials said. Many of the other suspects are charged with possession, distribution or manufacture of child pornography.

In the United States, indictments and criminal complaints were unsealed by officials in Illinois, Tennessee, Michigan, Nevada, Florida, New York, Arizona, Hawaii and North Carolina.

Nine defendants face charges in Canada, three in Australia and two in Great Britain.

Officials identified three defendants indicted for conspiracy to possess, receive, solicit and distribute child pornography: Annoreno of Bartless, Illinois; Gregory Sweezer of Aurora, Illinois; and Lisa Winebrenner of Osceola, Iowa.

A federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified said they are at the center of the overall investigation.

Four minors under the age of 12 were also shown being molested as video of the crime was being streamed over the Web site.

The indictment said the chat room was maintained by a "host" and various "administrators." A statement issued by the Justice Department before the news conference said the host was identified as Royal Raymond Weller of Clarksville, Tennessee, who was arrested March 6.

Among administrators identified in indictments are Jason Wilson of Milton, Florida; Michael Burns of Reno, Nevada; Kenneth Fisher of Charlotte, North Carolina; Marcel Deslauriers of Longueuil, Quebec; and Mill Park of Victoria, Australia.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/03/15/childporn.arrests/

Jennifer Kesse - Still Waiting In The Dark

2006-02-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

ORLANDO, Fla. -- There is a possible new development Monday in a story people have been talking about for nearly a month.

The family of Jennifer Kesse hopes the FBI will release new information Monday regarding a person of interest in her case, WESH 2 News reported.

Family and friends of Jennifer Kesse were at the Florida Mall all weekend long passing out fliers. Those fliers are now available in both Spanish and Creole. The family hopes that the expanded coverage will lead to new clues.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Crimeline at (800) 423-TIPS

Psychologist charged in teen's rape

2006-02-05T06:30:00.000-05:00

A Mattituck woman who was arrested last fall after she allegedly secretly visited her teenage neighbor at his new home in North Carolina is now facing a criminal charge in Suffolk: that she allegedly had sex with the boy before he left town, Southold police said.

Diane DeMartini-Scully, 45, a school psychologist employed by the East Hampton school district, has been charged with third-degree rape and third-degree criminal sexual act. She had a sexual relationship with the boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, said Southold Det. Steven Harned.

Southold police believe DeMartini-Scully had sexual intercourse and oral sex with the boy on a number of occasions last May in her Mattituck home and in her car, Harned said.

A month later, last June, the boy's family moved to Jacksonville, N.C., to escape Long Island's high cost of living, the boy's mother told Newsday.

In the fall, the boy's mother told North Carolina detectives the psychologist secretly visited her two children in their new town and gave them alcohol and marijuana.

The mother also said she discovered the alleged sexual relationship, but the boy had turned 16, which made him an adult in North Carolina.

DeMartini-Scully was arrested there on charges that included kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of minors.

Following that arrest, an inquiry by the East Hampton school district prompted Southold police to interview the boy about what may have happened while he was living in Suffolk County, Harned said.

"We had to take a look at him," Harned said. "We didn't want it to come back and haunt us."

A four-month Southold investigation led to the new charges.

Harned said he believed the sexual relationship was isolated to the one boy.

"He's the only one we're looking into," Harned said.

He also said 15-year-olds do not have the legal right to consent to sex in New York.

DeMartini-Scully is expected to be arraigned on the new charges today in Southold Justice Court.

Reached yesterday at his home, DeMartini-Scully's husband said he did not have enough information to make a comment.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lirape054614812feb05,0,5623493.story?coll=ny-linews-headlines&track=rss

Woman's intuition, persistence saves two kids in Alabama

2006-01-29T08:06:00.000-05:00

A Georgia woman happened to stop at a convenience store as she drove through Alabama on her way home. She saw a little girl inside that store and that girl's behavior gave her a bad feeling in her gut.

She just couldn't shake that feeling - and the extraordinary steps she then took may have saved the lives of that toddler and a teenaged boy. Now investigators are checking to see if there's a Washington state connection.

It was a gut feeling Tracie Dean couldn't shake.

“I just knew something wasn't right,” said Dean. “I just felt it.”

At a rural Alabama convenience store 12 days ago, Dean had a chance encounter with a seemingly troubled little girl.

“I bet you no one has ever spoken that kindly to that little girl. She just ate it up. I think she just really decided ‘I'm going home with her,’” said Dean.

Dean said the girl tried to follow her out of the store but then an older man stepped up.

Dean felt uneasy enough to scribble down the license plate as the two pulled away. The car had a Washington state license plate.

“My suspicion was that she didn't belong with that man,” said Dean.

So Dean called 9-1-1. Police told her everything checked out; it was the girl's grandfather. So she returned home to Georgia, but for some reason, she couldn't let it go.

“Every morning I woke up and thought about it,” said Dean. “Every night I went to bed and thought about it. And I just told my sister when my heart says to let this go, I'll let it go.”

For a week, she checked missing kids web sites, called several law enforcement agencies, even contacted America's Most Wanted.

She said no one took her seriously.

Obsessed, she drove for hours, over 300 miles, back to the convenience store to look at surveillance tape - and there they were on another trip to the same store.

Just then, an officer came in the store, took the tape and used it to find the man.

It turns out there was a reason for suspicion.

“Mr. Wiley initially and still is wanted in California for arson," said Tracy Hawsey, Conecuh County Sheriff.

John Wiley and his 40-year-old wife, Glenna Faye Cavender, were arrested and charged with multiple sex crimes against the three-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy found in a trailer.

“A 3-year-old girl - to have this done to her is unthinkable,” said Tommy Chapman, Conecuh County District Attorney. “We're not going to tolerate it."

Tracie Dean is not a mother, but she has the instincts of one – and her hunch saved two children.

“I just followed my heart,” said Dean. “That's the bottom line.”

Child welfare advocates said it was a good thing Dean kept trying.

"Sometimes they have to be persistent and be persistent until something happens, because that squeaky wheel could save a child's life," said Georgia Hillman-Hammond, executive director for Vanished Children’s Alliance.

The Alabama sheriff told KING 5 the couple has apparently lived in several states. Investigators are still checking to see how they ended up with a car that had Washington state plates.

The children are now in state custody. It's not clear how or even if they are related to the suspects. Investigators were awaiting DNA results.

The sheriff also said his office has been inundated with phone calls about the couple since this story first broke.

http://www.nwcn.com/statenews/washington/stories/NW_012706WAKgoodsamaratinLJ.453965ba

Nation’s number one Sex Offender Tracking Website

2006-01-20T14:14:00.000-05:00

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http://www.familywatchdog.us

Family Watchdog in the News and on the Web.

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John Walsh Applauds Florida – Family Watchdog Partnership

Florida becomes first State to team with Family Watchdog - Nation’s number one Sex Offender Tracking Website

John Walsh, host of America’s Most Wanted and a supporter of Family Watchdog issued a statement last week when he learned of the country's first partnership between the sex offender tracking and mapping website and the state of Florida. “I applaud Governor Bush and Attorney General Crist for taking this pro-active initiative to keep Florida the number one state in protecting Florida’s most valuable resource; its children. Family Watchdog will give all Floridians the ability to keep their communities safer. Everyone should have the right to know if a convicted sex offender is living in their neighborhood. I’m very honored that my home state is the first state in our nation to team up with Family Watchdog”.

California Residents! Support Jessica's Law legislation if you want your children protected from repeat sex offenders.

Enter an address to view a map of registered sex offenders near you.

http://www.familywatchdog.us

Glitter charged with child molesting

2006-01-10T11:12:00.000-05:00

Former British glam rock star Gary Glitter has been indicted by Vietnamese prosecutors on charges of "lewd acts with minors" and is being investigated on possible rape charges involving girls of 11 and 12.

The Bangkok Post reports that Glitter (61) is being held in the seaside town of Vung Tau, 50km east of Ho Chi Minh City.

He now faces up to seven years in jail as opposed to the firing squad.

"We have completed the indictment," Pham Dinh Cuc, an official with the Vung Tau People's Procuracy told the paper. "The charge is still the same, which is having lewd acts with children."

No trial date has been set, but Cuc told the Post that Glitter could be in court as early as the end of this month, ahead of the Tet lunar new year holiday that begins January 28.

Earlier, the paper reported that prosecutors decided not to file child rape charges after physical evidence proved inconclusive and the girls' families wrote letters to the court pleading for leniency after Glitter paid them each $2000.

Glitter, whose real name is Paul Francis Gadd, was arrested in 1997 in the UK after a computer technician found hard-core child pornography on his computer.

He was convicted of possession of pornography and served half of a four-month sentence in 1999, after which he fled to live in Cambodia and Vietnam.

http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/773124.htm

Gambler stole sex offenders' identities

2006-01-04T14:29:00.000-05:00

An Arkansas man is facing his own felony charges after allegedly using a sex offender registry to scam about $20,000 from credit cards and federal tax refunds in the name of registered sex offenders.

Matthew Buescher, 35, was arrested Wednesday after a traffic stop by a Benton County Sheriff's deputy who found file folders containing financial information on several people.

Deputy Doug Gay said Buescher apparently targeted Indiana sex offenders because their information was easy to get from the Internet, the sheriff's office said in a news release.

He told investigators he used the money to gamble in Oklahoma casinos, officials said.

Buescher, of Siloam Springs, was charged with financial identity fraud, driving on a suspended license and having fictitious tags. He posted a $7,500 bond Friday and was released from jail, authorities said Saturday.

Child molestation on FEMA ship alleged

2005-12-28T04:05:00.000-05:00

PASCAGOULA - Pascagoula police are investigating an alleged molestation of a 4-year-old Gulfport girl living on the Carnival Holiday cruise ship with her family.

Lt. Davy Davis said Saturday detectives are continuing the investigation. Few details about the alleged incident have been released. Police have identified a possible suspect, but no arrests have been made.

The girl is among more than 1,000 people living on the ship, which has been used as a FEMA-contracted shelter for residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

Since the ship docked Oct. 29 in Pascagoula, police have taken 17 reports of criminal activity on the vessel.

These include simple possession of marijuana, car burglary, simple assault and making harassing telephone calls on and near the ship.

Agents from the state bureau of investigation and the state bureau of narcotics provide law enforcement on the ship. A private security firm patrols the ship entrance and the parking lot near it. City police have jurisdiction over the ship and investigate crimes reported.

Police Hunt Escaped Serial Rape Suspect

2005-12-22T08:24:00.000-05:00

MIAMI — A man accused of raping seven girls and women in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood escaped from jail by crawling through a ceiling vent and then climbing down from the roof using tied-together bedsheets, police said Wednesday.

Police searched neighborhoods, airports, rail stations and ports for Reynaldo E. Rapalo, 34, who broke out of a Miami-Dade County Jail on Tuesday night, police said. A man who tried to escape with him was caught after he jumped and broke his legs.

"We fully realize he represents the worst kind of threat possible to the streets of Miami," Miami-Dade Police Director Robert Parker said. "There will be no stone unturned."

Rapalo was awaiting trial after being arrested in 2003. He was charged with raping seven people, ages 11 to 79, and attempting to attack four others. If convicted, he could get life in prison.

He climbed through a vent in the 7-foot ceiling of his single-man cell on the sixth floor and made it to the roof on that level, jail spokeswoman Janelle Hall said. The building has roofs at different levels, and Rapalo used sheets to climb down each one, authorities said.

The vent was supposed to be locked, but its door had been pried off. Bars blocking the vent's opening to the roof were cut, officials said.

The rapes kept Little Havana on edge for a year. On Wednesday afternoon, stores there had taped wanted posters to their front doors.

Ena Hernandez, 26, who works at a jewelry store, said she was unnerved to learn of the escape. "Imagine, a girl walking alone to her car," she said. "It makes me want to watch my back more."

Rapalo was caught after DNA evidence linked him to an attack on a woman, police said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-escape22dec22,1,6605596.story?coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true

Jessica Marie Lunsford: Couey Admitted Earlier Molestation

2005-12-14T12:40:00.000-05:00

TAMPA - The man accused of raping and killing Jessica Marie Lunsford told police in 1991 he had molested his wife's daughter, according to discovery material released Tuesday in the Lunsford case.

John Evander Couey, then 32, made the statement in a Kissimmee police report after exposing himself to a 5-year-old girl, the documents show.

Couey served less than five years in prison after pleading guilty to attempting a lewd act upon a child, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

The documents released Tuesday include a letter he wrote to Judge Belvin Parry after the plea, saying he "took Jesus as my personal savior" and vowing to reform.

"I am not to [sic] happy in what I done, but I realize this is what it took for me to stop and look at myself," Couey wrote. "I know what I done was wrong and I know I will have to pay for it but I will be doing it with Jesus in my life and I will let the light shine in me."

Couey, now 47, is charged in Jessica's death with first-degree murder, sexual battery on a child younger than 12, kidnapping and burglary with battery.

Investigators say he abducted the 9-year-old Homosassa girl on Feb. 23, carried her to a nearby mobile home he shared with other adults, raped her, then buried her alive in the yard.

He has a pretrial hearing Dec. 21 in Inverness.

Couey was living in Kissimmee in 1991 when he was playing with a 5-year-old neighbor, kissed her neck and exposed himself, a police report states.

"Couey admitted this was not the first child he had ever touched, however this is the first time he was caught," the report states.

Couey told police in the report he had molested his wife's daughter, but his wife agreed not to report the incident "if he left the house and gave her a divorce, which he did." Public records show Couey has not divorced. He married in 1985.

Topic Tags: Jessica Marie Lunsford, John Couey

Father, daughter face incest charge

2005-12-09T11:59:00.000-05:00

It fit the mode of other alarming emergencies: A worried couple rushed their newborn to a hospital in May, claiming she suffered a seizure in their Utica apartment.

But Serenity, then 7 weeks old, was actually a victim of shaken-baby syndrome at the hands of her 24-year-old mother, police said.

And the mother wasn't only the companion of the child's father -- she is his biological daughter.

"I believe this is the first time we've come across where a father fathered a child with his daughter and she was basically a willing participant in it," Utica Police Sgt. Dave Faber said.

Authorities are searching for Angela M. Moore, who has been charged in an arrest warrant with first-degree child abuse and third-degree incest, and David M. Sterling, 46, also charged with third-degree incest for his relationship with Moore.

Therese Tobin, the chief trial attorney in the Macomb County Prosecutor's Office, has overseen incest charges against adults who abused minors, but this is the first time she's seen charges against two adults who said they had a consensual relationship.

"It doesn't happen everyday," Tobin said.

She said she wasn't sure whether the case set precedent in the county. Since Michigan State Police classifies third-degree incest under criminal sexual conduct, it was unable to immediately provide statistics on how often the crime occurs statewide.

At Mt. Clemens-based Turning Point, which offers programs and resources for domestic violence and sexual assault victims and helps homeless people, Aimee Nimeh, director of community development, said she and the staff have heard of similar incest cases.

"And when we looked more closely to it, there's usually a lot more going on than a relationship between two consenting adults," Nimeh said Thursday.

"Incest sort of falls under the sexual assault umbrella," she said. "Because the man is her father, he already has this sort of societal right of domination. There's already this power differential."

Neither Moore nor Sterling showed up for child custody hearings since the incident.

Serenity, who has been recovering from the trauma, which required surgery at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, may have suffered some brain damage and is a ward of the state, living in foster care, Faber said.
Moore's other children from another relationship, who lived with her at the time, now are with their father.

Her brother, who also lived with her, is in foster care, Faber said.

Police interviewed and administered polygraph tests on the pair, who openly admitted they were intimately involved, and Moore told police they were engaged. She explained that she didn't know Sterling until she was an adult. They moved in together, and later a mutual relationship unfolded.

Moore told police her baby's injuries were likely the result of her dancing around with the child. Investigators say they believe the baby had been shaken more than once.

If convicted, Moore and Sterling each face a maximum of 15 years in prison on the incest felony. Moore also faces up to 15 years if convicted of the child abuse felony. They have since moved out of Utica, police said.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/NEWS04/512090452

Bill Giordano: Prosecutors drop some molestation charges

2005-12-02T18:34:00.000-05:00

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. - Prosecutors dropped some of the charges against a middle school gym teacher who was accused of molesting two of his female students.

The San Mateo County District Attorney's office said Thursday that Bill Giordano, 60, who worked at Jordan Middle School in Palo Alto, will now only face charges in connection with the alleged abuse of one of the girls.

Giordano, who taught and coached in the Palo Alto Unified School District for nearly 30 years before his arrest in August, still faces 21 counts of sexual assault on a 14-year-old member of a volleyball team he coached in the 1990s.

The eighth-grade girl was allegedly seduced while she was working as a baby sitter for Giordano's toddler son, and the abuse lasted for two-and-a-half years, prosecutors said.

Giordano's defense lawyer, William Stewart, said after a pretrial hearing on Thursday that his client told police that he had "contact" with the student, but refused to provide further details.

Giordano, who remains free on $1 million bail, has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

Giordano had also been charged with three additional counts involving a second girl, who was 13 at the time of the alleged abuse in 2003. But those charges were dropped because the family no longer wanted their daughter to participate in the trial, prosecutor Melissa McKowan said at the hearing.

Giordano waived his right to a preliminary hearing and agreed to have the case sent immediately to a judge, who was scheduled to review it on Jan. 10.

Priest Sentenced For Child Pornography

2005-11-29T08:53:00.000-05:00

A Catholic priest who pleaded guilty to child pornography charges earlier this year will spend eight months in prison.

BARNSTABLE, Mass. -- The Reverend Stephen Fernandes was suspended from his post as pastor of Our Lady of Fatima Church in New Bedford last year.

In court this past September, he admitted to charges of storing hundreds of images of children engaging in sexual acts on his computer.

Fernandes was sentenced Monday in Barnstable Superior Court and will serve out his prison term at the Duke's County House of Correction on Martha's Vineyard. He's eligible for probation in three months.

Prosecutors were seeking a three year prison term.

Bristol County District Attorney Paul Walsh issued a statement saying he was disappointed with the sentence.

The Diocese of Fall River calls the case "profoundly disturbing."

Coach guilty in sex case

2005-11-23T18:58:00.000-05:00

MANSFIELD -- The former director of the Johnny Appleseed Baseball Club faces up to 11 1/2 years in prison after being found guilty of multiple sex offenses involving boys he met through the program.

Ronald D. Russell, 71, of 644 Villa Drive, Ontario, pleaded no contest Monday before Richland County Common Pleas Judge James DeWeese, who scheduled sentencing Jan. 9.

Russell, who directed the local travel baseball program for 18 years, was found guilty of sexual battery and unlawful sexual conduct, both third-degree felonies, and gross sexual imposition, a fourth-degree charge.

Russell, a former junior high school social studies teacher and varsity baseball coach at Clear Fork High School, resigned from JABC in July after the gross sexual imposition allegation was reported publicly. The club was formed in 1983 and is the oldest continuously operating club in north central Ohio, with teams of various age groups.

The more serious charges were reported to law enforcement after the News Journal published its first story about the initial allegation, said Sgt. Jeff McBride of the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

"One of those (victims) became known directly through the announcement in the newspaper. Through the process, that person led us to another potential victim," McBride said.

The sexual battery charge alleges Russell had sexual conduct with a boy under his authority from the summer of 2000 to the summer of 2003, McBride said. Assistant Prosecutor John Baker said Russell was the boy's coach.

"It's a situation where Mr. Russell has taken unscrupulous advantage of the victim," Baker said.
Unlawful sexual conduct is the same charge, but the victim was not someone under Russell's authority. The offense occurred between the fall of 1989 and the fall of 1991.

The gross sexual imposition charge alleges sexual contact during the summer of 2004.
McBride said Russell's status as a well-known youth sports leader didn't affect the case.

"It doesn't matter who it was, we had a job to do. We did it as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. He is being held accountable for his actions," said McBride, assigned to Children Services.

Russell, free from jail on bond, is under electronic monitoring. Under terms of the bond, he can't have contact with the victims.

Before sentencing, Russell will undergo a psychological evaluation to see if he needs sex offender treatment.
Defense attorney Robert Whitney of Lexington said probation should be considered.

"He was honest and forthright during the investigation," Whitney said. "He has no prior record. That should all play into (the judge's decision)."

McBride described Russell as "cautiously cooperative."

"He thoroughly understands what he did was wrong, legally wrong and morally wrong. He understands he has some real personal issues he has to deal with for the rest of his life," McBride said

Florida's registry: "just does not give you the information you need to keep your children safe."

2005-11-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Sex offender law called unfair

Activists urge the state to adopt a tiered system, but some officers and legislators disagree.

She was 15. He was 19 going on 20.

Toby Wine and the young woman called their relationship love. The state called it a crime and charged Wine with a sex offense.

He got three years' probation. The young couple married and had a daughter.
Then Wine did something really stupid.

He had sex with his wife's 15-year-old friend a little more than a year later. Another criminal offense, another underage victim.

This time, the state deemed the Pasco County man among the worst of the worst:

Sexual predator.Who is a public threat?

St. Petersburg activist Betty Price calls them the "Romeo and Juliet" cases. A young man gets sexually involved with an even younger girl. They think they are playing out the modern-day Grease, where losing your virginity in the back seat was more cool than criminal.

They don't associate themselves with those grizzly old perverts who get busted for sexually molesting children.

But in Florida, the law knows no such distinction. Both scenarios can land someone on the state's sex offender registry, either as an offender or predator.

Some people think that's exactly where all types of sex offenders should be.

"I don't have any sympathy for individuals who have sexual intercourse with a minor," state Sen. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, said recently. "You should be a responsible adult and know who you are having sexual intercourse with."

Said Pasco County Sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll: "You may have parental consent to date her. You may have parental consent to have sex with her. But the law says no."

Others, however, are pushing for Florida to adopt what they describe as a more sensible way of classifying those convicted of sex crimes. The approach, used by at least 10 other states, includes a risk assessment that separates low-risk sex offenders from their more violent counterparts.

The tiered system also benefits the public, supporters say, by giving people a clearer picture of those offenders who truly present a threat.

Without a risk assessment, says one St. Petersburg mental health counselor, "the Internet registry (of sex offenders) is totally ineffective."

Denise Hughes-Conlon, who is also president of the Florida Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers, said Florida's registry "just does not give you the information you need to keep your children safe.

Policy is broad to some, perfect to others

In October, the Central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union held a news conference in Orlando featuring three families caught on the hard side of the state's new, tougher laws against sex offenders.
Emilio and Amber Johnston of Inverness were among the participants, according to chapter president George Crossley. As an 18-year-old, Emilio Johnston was arrested for having sex with his underage girlfriend.

He pleaded no contest to the charge and received three years' probation.

He also was designated a sex offender.

That label brought trouble this year, Crossley said, when authorities hauled in sex offenders registered in Citrus County as part of their investigation into who had killed 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford.

Detectives asked Johnston, now a 23-year-old father of three, if changing his children's diapers aroused him, Crossley said. The couple's home also was vandalized in the wake of Lunsford's death, which authorities allege was caused by convicted sex offender John Couey.

"(Johnston) in no way qualifies" as a sexual offender, Crossley told the St. Petersburg Times. The couple could not be reached for comment.

"This state has basically just lumped everybody together and a pox on all their houses," said Crossley, a retired radio broadcaster. His ACLU chapter has taken a particular interest in this issue, he said, because members think Florida's sex offender laws are becoming unjustly oppressive.

Before the Jessica Lunsford Act passed in May, those who study and provide treatment to sex offenders lobbied unsuccessfully for lawmakers to consider the risk assessment tools variously utilized by other states.

In New Jersey, for instance, sex offenders are separated into three groups based on their likelihood of committing a new sex crime. Only those in tiers two and three, who are deemed to be at moderate and high risk of reoffending, are included on the state's sex offender registry.

The online registry provides more specific information than Florida's, including the individual's conviction date, location of the crime and whether the victim knew the perpetrator.

Such information tells the public what it really needs to know, said Jill Levenson, who researches criminal justice policies for sexual violence as a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton.

"Florida's policies tend to be broad," she said. "Broad policies dilute the public's ability to know who is really dangerous."

Levenson said the risk assessment concept is similar to the process through which car insurance premiums are determined. Companies use a person's age, driving experience and record to decide which drivers are at high risk for getting into an accident. Likewise, mental health experts take into account a sex offender's number and type of victims to assess who is likely to commit a new sex crime.

Studies have shown child molesters, particularly those who prey on boys, to be highly dangerous. But Levenson said a wide range of offense patterns and risk levels exists among sex offenders as a group.

"Nothing is perfect," she said. "But I think that we are pretty good at at least being able to screen and identify those people who are most likely to fall into the high-risk category.

Getting Florida law changed won't be easy. Cities across the state, including New Port Richey, have enacted laws that restrict how close sex offenders can live to parks, playgrounds, schools, libraries and day care centers.

In 2003, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled states could post pictures of convicted sex offenders on the Internet, the court also denied a challenge from offenders who wanted the chance to prove they weren't dangerous in order to stay off the Web.

Those moves didn't surprise risk assessment supporters. Most sex offenses happen within families, they say, yet the majority of legislation is geared to the small population of offenders who are strangers to their victims.

Fasano said his heart goes out to parents who tell him stories of their sons getting caught with underage girls. But he opposes loosening the law's restrictions. Any consideration for the severity of a sex offender's punishment should be decided by the courts, he said.

"It is my opinion that they are all individuals who should be known as a sex offender," Fasano said. "People should be aware of their presence and what they have done in the past.

Predator status affects housing, employment

Wine's past haunts him.

In 1997, after having sex with an underage girl for the second time, Wine accepted the state's offer of 45 months in prison. His attorney argued Wine shouldn't be designated as a sexual predator because he wasn't a threat to society. The court disagreed.

After Wine's release, a licensed psychologist in Spring Hill concluded that he was unlikely to repeat his mistakes and did not fit the mold of a typical sexual predator or pedophile.

But multiple landlords have kicked Wine out when they learned he is a sexual predator. Employers don't want to hire him. At one job, colleagues posted his sex registry photo on a bulletin board. He left to save his dignity.

The lowest moment came when he realized his daughter, whom state child welfare workers had taken from his estranged wife because of neglect, would be better off if someone else adopted her.

"If she was living with me, how many neighbors would let their kids play with her?" he said.

Last month the 31-year-old faced another obstacle. A day after his latest move, he went to the DMV to update his driver's license as required. The difference between his new and old address was just two numbers. Wine said the clerk made a mistake and kept his old address on the license.

He didn't notice the error until he landed in the back of a deputy's squad car for failing to register his address within 48 hours of moving. He spent another couple of weeks in jail before his bail was reduced. He lost his home and job. This week, he will be arraigned on the charge.

"It's put me through a lot," Wine said of his predator status. "I'm just trying to have a normal life."

http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/20/Pasco/Sex_offender_law_call.shtml

Fugitive Police Officer Accused Of Child Sex Abuse

2005-11-16T07:01:00.000-05:00

BALTIMORE -- Oprah Winfrey is on a crusade to save children from child sex offenders and is offering $100,000 to anyone who helps catch those on the run.

One of the accused is a former Baltimore City police officer. Edward Claire Reisch, 55, is accused of assaulting and sodomizing a 16-year-old relative.

WBAL-TV 11 News reporter Lisa Robinson said the incident allegedly took place inside a south Baltimore home in 1999. The victim was visiting family over the Thanksgiving weekend.

According to the statement of charges, the victim "began to become afraid due to the defendant being an ex-police officer, being intoxicated and being physically larger and stronger." The report said after the attack, the victim told adults in the house, and when confronted, Reisch fled the scene.

Police charged him with several sex offenses relating to the incident, but they haven't been able to prosecute because he's been on the run.

Reisch joined the Baltimore City police force in June 1975. Police said he left the force in 1986 to start his own business.

He also goes by the alias Robert C. Reisch Jr. and has family ties to Pittsburgh. He was even able to get a Pennsylvania driver's license in December just weeks after he took off.

Police believe Reisch is armed and dangerous. If you see him, you are asked to call the warrant apprehension task force at (410) 637-8970 or dial 911.

http://www.thewbalchannel.com/news/5336350/detail.html

Murder charges filed against Steven Avery

2005-11-15T14:58:00.000-05:00

MANITOWAC, Wis. -- A Wisconsin man who served 18 years in prison for a rape he didn't commit has now been charged with murder.

Steven Avery is accused of killing a freelance photographer who had an appointment with him on the last day she was seen alive. Human teeth and bones believed to be all that's left of Teresa Halbach were found in a burn pit behind Avery's garage.

Avery has denied any knowledge of Halbach's disappearance. He has repeatedly said he believes he is being set up because of his pending 36 (m) million dollar lawsuit against Manitowoc County for the wrongful rape conviction that sent him to prison.

Investigators searching for Halbach say they found the key to her S-U-V with Avery's D-N-A on it hidden in his bedroom. They also found Avery's D-N-A and Halbach's blood inside her S-U-V.

http://www.knva.com/Global/story.asp?S=4122687

Molestation charge for woman who wed 15-year-old

2005-11-15T12:17:00.000-05:00

GAINESVILLE, Ga. -- A 37-year-old woman has been charged with child molestation for allegedly having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy whom she married last week.

The Gainesville Times quoted unidentified members of the boy's family as saying that Lisa Lynnette Clark is pregnant with the boy's child and that they were married Tuesday.

The boy's grandmother, Judy Hayles, said she received an official notice of the marriage because she is the boy's guardian. She had filed a complaint against Clark on Oct. 6.

Clark was arrested Wednesday and remained in custody Monday. A preliminary hearing is set for Nov. 30.

District Attorney Lee Darragh said Georgia law on child molestation says that a person under 16 legally cannot consent to a sexual act. Darragh would not comment further on the case.

Hayles said the relationship had been going on for nearly two years. She said her grandson and Clark's teenage son had been close friends and that the grandson spent many weekends at Clark's home.

Now Hayles said she is working to end the marriage.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-molest15.html

Two on trial on child molestation charges

2005-11-15T07:24:00.000-05:00

A foster parent said she reported the "odd" behavior of four children in her care to the Department of Family and Children's Services after observing several instances of inappropriate sexual behavior.

Donna Walraven, called as the first witness for the prosecution in the child molestation trial of Robin Sarratt and Charity Irene Wilson in Bartow County Superior Court Monday, said despite the recent loss of a younger brother to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), the children, aged 6, 4, 2 and 18 months at the time, seemed happy when DFACS first placed them with her and her husband in November 2002.

But within a few days, the children began "acting out" in "ways that weren't appropriate," Walraven said.

Authorities quickly stepped in to investigate and after hearing testimony from the two older children, Sarratt and Wilson were arrested on warrants issued by a Bartow County Juvenile Court judge, Prosecutor Rosemary Heidmann said.

A grand jury indicted the pair on 15 counts relating to incidents between January 1998 and December 31, 2002, in which they allegedly touched the children "in an immoral or indecent way," Heidemann said.

Sarratt is charged with eight counts of child molestation and an additional charge of aggravated child molestation and Wilson faces six counts of child molestation.

Teens Sought In Pa. Killings Found

2005-11-14T13:17:00.000-05:00

BELLEVILLE, Indiana -- A man wanted in a Pennsylvania double homicide and apparent abduction of 14-year-old girl was captured Monday after a car he was driving crashed in Indiana following a police pursuit, State Police said.

State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said David Ludwig, 18, was apprehended about 12:30 p.m. EST after a car he was driving crashed about 20 miles west of Indianapolis following a pursuit by State Police.

Bursten said Ludwig was found with the missing girl, 14-year-old, Kara Beth Borden, a daughter of the slain couple, and she was unharmed.

"He's in custody and we have the girl," Bursten said.

Footage from news helicopters showed a girl sitting in a police cruiser, and a young man wearing a gray T-shirt was handcuffed sitting next to a red Volkswagen Jetta that had run head-on into a large tree on a curve of a rural road.

The man was led by police officers to a waiting State Police car.

Pennsylvania police said Ludwig killed Borden's parents, Michael F. and Cathryn Lee Borden, both 50, early Sunday after they and their daughter argued about her curfew. The shootings took place at the family's home in Warwick Township, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia.

Police said that Kara Beth was believed to be Ludwig's girlfriend.

Woman charged with child molestation

2005-11-13T11:16:00.000-05:00

A Gainesville woman has been charged with child molestation in connection with an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

Investigators with the Hall County Sheriff's Office said Lisa Lynnette Clark, 37, was being held in the Hall County Detention Center. Members of the victim's family say that Clark is pregnant with the boy's baby and that the two reportedly were married Tuesday in Dawson County.

Judy Hayles, the boy's grandmother, said that the relationship had been going on for nearly two years. Hayles said that her grandson and Clark's teenage son had been close friends and that the grandson spent many weekends at Clark's home.

"I got a call Tuesday from his (the grandson's) sister in Alabama," said Hayles. She said that the boy told his sister to tell their grandmother that he was married and would not be coming home.

Hayles said that she received custody of the boy and his sister in 1995 and that the boy has been in and out of trouble.

She said that she once was very fond of Clark because she would accompany the boys to movies, skating, and other activities.

Now Hayles is concerned with ending the marriage, she said.

"This marriage is going to be terminated," she said, emphatically.

She said that she received a notice of the marriage from Dawson County because she is the boy's guardian.

Georgia Law gives an exemption to age requirements for marriage when the female applicant is pregnant.

Clark, who was arrested Wednesday, remains jailed on $10,000 bond.

Therapist Accused Of Having Sex With 15-Year-Old

2005-11-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

WAUKEGAN, Ill. A 26-year-old woman is accused of having sex with a teenage boy she counseled while working as therapist for juvenile offenders in Lake County.

Tiffany Daddino of Chicago is charged with criminal sexual assault and is being held in the Lake County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Lake County prosecutors contend Daddino has sex several times with a 15-year-old Zion boy who was being held at a residential treatment center in Vernon Hills.

County officials say Daddino passed a criminal background check when she was hired last November as a counselor. Authorities say she was suspended when the investigation began last month and then resigned.

Illinois officials concerned Iowa rules will drive sex offenders across state line

2005-11-13T07:07:00.000-05:00

SPRINGFIELD - Illinois officials are watching Iowa's new sex offender residency requirements closely, hoping the Land of Lincoln will not become a possible haven for child molesters.

Iowa has adopted rules barring those convicted of sex offenses against minors from living within 2,000 feet of schools and day care facilities.

This makes Illinois an attractive alternative, said Rock Island County Sheriff Michael Grchan.

"They are going to come across the bridge. They are not moving to Texas. They are moving to Rock Island County," he said. "They're going to stay as close to home as they can because that is where their family and friends are.

"Illinois law prohibits child molesters from living with in 500 feet of schools or day care facilities.Cara Smith, policy director for the Illinois Attorney General's Office, is concerned Iowa's law also will encourage sex offenders to avoid registering.

"We want there to be accountability among the sex offender population. Registries are the first tool we have to do that. But we've got to keep them on the registry, which means we have to know where they are," she said.

"How do we ensure that we know who these people coming from Iowa are?"The problem is compounded by Iowa cities and counties considering even more restrictive requirements. The Davenport City Council recently tabled a proposal adding parks, public swimming pools, libraries and recreational trails to the list.

The Scott County Board is still looking at a similar ordinance.Illinois lawmakers are taking a wait-and-see attitude.

"We need to look at all the things we can do, but not panic," said state Rep. Mike Boland, D-East Moline.

Grchan estimates his office deals with at least 300 sex offenders, and he is not sure how his officers would deal with the possible increase.

"I think it's politically popular now to be tough on sex offenders," said Grchan, who suggested that tougher prison sentences might be a better solution to dealing with pedophiles.

"Everybody wants to put on all these restrictions and guidelines, but law enforcement gets no help. They pass the laws, but there are no people to watch these people. We do what we can.

"The Iowa law has been criticized for being too broad and making no distinction between pedophiles and other types of sex crimes. Questions also have been raised about whether these types of bans will protect children at all.

Smith counters: "I don't draw a big distinction that one person is not dangerous and another is. When you're talking about kids, I think we need to be as cautious as we can.

"The Illinois Attorney General's Office estimates 87 percent of the state's sex offender population committed crimes against children, Smith said.

http://www.herald-review.com/articles/2005/11/13/news/state/1011256.txt

Pentagon Employee, Former Scout Leader, Charged With Child Porn

2005-11-11T15:37:00.000-05:00

A defense department employee is under arrest on child pornography charges.

The civilian worker, David Michael Polski, 40, was taken into custody Tuesday at the Pentagon.

9 News has confirmed that Polski was a Boy Scout Leader. His membership has since been revoked.

Police say they found child pornography at his home in the 2400 block of Misty Dawn Drive in Herndon.

Polski is currently being held in the Fairfax County detention center without bond.

http://www.wusatv9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=44319

Third Student Accuses Teacher Of Sexual Assault

2005-11-11T15:35:00.000-05:00

BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. -- A third student has come forward and has accused a Crystal Lake Middle School geography teacher of sexually assaulting him.

Thursday, Adrian Valdez, 29, was charged with additional counts of sexual battery, exposure of sexual organs and lewd and lascivious molestation for an alleged assault on Aug. 28, when Valdez drove one of his 14-year-old students to his house.

Broward Sheriff's Office Sex Crimes detectives first arrested Valdez on Oct. 21 for an alleged assault upon a 12-year-old boy. Last month, publicity from that arrest prompted a 14-year-old boy to tell investigators that he too was victimized by Valdez.

Investigators said each of the alleged assaults on the boys was strikingly similar. According to detectives, in each case, Valdez offered his students rides home then took them to his house, showed them pornographic videotapes, led them into his bedroom and committed identical sex acts in the same location within the room.

In addition, authorities in Orangeburg, S.C. have reopened an investigation into allegations that Valdez victimized a 16-year-old boy that he had been mentoring in 2002.

Valdez is still being held without bond.

http://www.local10.com/news/5298668/detail.html

Lifetime tracking of sex offenders eyed

2005-11-11T09:14:00.000-05:00

MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Wisconsin's most dangerous sex predators would be forced to wear global positioning system bracelets to record their locations for the rest of their lives under a Republican-authored bill the state Assembly passed overwhelmingly Wednesday.

The measure also would require the state Department of Corrections to use GPS technology to track the state's most serious child molesters for at least 20 years after they leave prison.

“It's 24 hours, seven-days-a-week monitoring of our state's worst child molesters,” said Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, one of the bill's authors. “If you're a child molester in this state, Wisconsin will quickly become your worst nightmare.”

The bill still has to pass the state Senate and get Gov. Jim Doyle's signature before it can become law, but Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow says the governor has already ordered Corrections in late September to place 200 of the state's most dangerous sex offenders on GPS tracking. He said Doyle, a Democrat, likes the bill because it goes even further.

The bill passed the Assembly 96-1 with no debate. The lone dissenter was Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison. He said a GPS system would cost the state millions of dollars to operate and wouldn't stop sex offenders from striking again. Republicans are just trying to make themselves look good, he said.

The bill's key provisions include:

€ Offenders found to be sexually violent under Wisconsin's Chapter 980 statute would have to wear GPS bracelets after they're released until they either die or the Corrections Department deems they've become too feeble to pose a danger to anyone.

They could not ask a court to end the monitoring.

Chapter 980 allows civil commitment of sexually violent offenders after they complete their sentences.

€ Anyone released after being convicted of first- or second-degree child sexual assault would have to wear a GPS bracelet for 20 years after they physically walk out of prison. Unlike sexually violent offenders, they then could petition a judge to end monitoring.

€ The GPS units would transmit an offender's location to Corrections Department staff every 10 minutes.

-Any offender who tampers with his GPS device would be guilty of a felony and could face up to $1,000 in fines and three and a half years in prison.

Running a GPS tracking system wouldn't come cheap.

According to a fiscal estimate that the Corrections Department attached to the bill in September, the agency would have to spend $8.6 million a year for equipment and hire 43 new employees to monitor the data at a cost of $2.4 million annually, plus startup costs of $387,800.

The Department of Health and Family Services, which supervises sexually violent offenders, would have to pay the Corrections Department up to $127,800 the first year and up to $25,550 thereafter to cover tracking their offenders, the estimate said.

“The cost is extremely prohibitive,” Pocan said.

Suder said those numbers are overblown.

Corrections' estimate improperly assumes all current child molesters would have to get on GPS monitoring, Suder said. His bill applies only to sex offenders in the future, he said.

He pointed to another fiscal estimate, this one from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, that found tracking costs would be closer to $3 million and the technology would run no more than $2 million. Corrections would need about 12 new positions, that estimate said.

Suder said the bill has been changed to require offenders to pay for the daily cost of their bracelet, which runs anywhere from $9 to $11. U.S. Congressman Mark Green, R-Green Bay, also is working on getting federal money for the bill, Suder said.

---

The bill is AB 591.

---

On the Net:

Department of Corrections: www.wi-doc.com/

Wisconsin Legislature: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/

http://www.beloitdailynews.com/articles/2005/11/10/wisconsin/wis02.txt

Teresa Halbach case: Grim discoveries emerge

2005-11-11T07:44:00.000-05:00

MISHICOT — The bones of an adult woman, human teeth, blood and signs of a failed attempt to burn a body have been found during the search for Teresa Marie Halbach. The veteran sheriff who announced the discovery said the evidence reflects a crime that defies description.

"You can probably tell I'm a little shook up today with the evidence that we've discovered and I think I have a right to be," Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel told reporters Thursday afternoon.

"I've been involved in this business for 33 years and I've seen a lot of bad things in my investigations, but I think this tops the cake," Pagel said. "To know that one human being can do this to another human being is beyond belief."

Pagel said the teeth and bones were found near the residence of Steven Avery on his family's 40-acre property three miles west of Mishicot.

A burning barrel near the Avery residence was "pertinent to the investigation," he said.

A "significant" amount of blood was recovered from inside the vehicle owned by Halbach, a 25-year-old photographer. The sport utility vehicle had been found on Saturday, which made Avery's Auto Salvage the focus of the search ever since. More blood was found in and around houses on the property.

And, "the key that was used to start Teresa Halbach's vehicle was found in Steven Avery's bedroom," Pagel said.

The latest discoveries have led the Halbach family to call off its independent search and for law enforcement to change the scope of its investigation from missing person to homicide.

"It appears that an attempt was made to dispose of a body by an incendiary means," Pagel said. "However, that attempt was not completely successful. Pieces of human teeth were found on the Avery property and the bones have been determined to be that of an adult female. The teeth are also that of a human being."

The Wisconsin State Crime Lab is analyzing the new evidence to determine if it is Halbach, who was last seen Oct. 31. Her family reported her missing Nov. 3. The photographer from St. John had three assignments for Auto Trader Magazine Oct. 31, one of which was at the salvage yard.

Avery, 43, is in Calumet County Jail after his arrest Wednesday on a felony firearm possession charge. He has not been charged in the homicide investigation nor has anyone else. He is scheduled to appear in Manitowoc County Circuit Court Tuesday for an initial appearance in front of Judge Patrick Willis.

Teresa Halbach's family was drawing strength from their faith and community.

"It hurts — it breaks your heart," Teresa's brother, Mike Halbach, said Thursday afternoon outside his parents' home in northern Calumet County, about 90 minutes after police announced the grim discoveries.

"We know God was with Teresa her whole life and Teresa is with God now. We have long after-lives. We will see Teresa again."

Several members of the Avery family who reside at the site of the salvage yard on Avery Road were ordered to submit to DNA testing Wednesday, including Steven's older brother, Charles, 51. Their nephew, Bryan Dassey, 20, went for the test Thursday.

"The way I look at it now is, if they found evidence, it was planted," Charles Avery said in a phone interview.

No one in the family has talked to Steven Avery since his arrest, he said.

"The way I look at is, either I'm next or my brother Earl is," Charles Avery said.

Dassey said the latest request from authorities is another form of harassment. He was with his brother, Brendan, 15, in Marinette County Sunday when law enforcement impounded their uncle Steve's car. He said he felt stalked and trapped.

"I didn't even get a mile from where we live before we got pulled over," Dassey said.

Despite the salvage yard being the center of the investigation and Thursday's announcements, he insisted his family had nothing to do with the crime.

"I don't have anything to hide and my family has nothing to hide," he said. "I know my uncle's innocent. They're all innocent. I believe they are. I don't think they can do something like that."

The section of Highway 147 near Avery Road reopened to traffic Thursday afternoon for the first time since Saturday morning. Avery family members have been prohibited from the property since it became a potential crime scene upon the discovery of Halbach's car. Charles Avery said he is staying with his daughter in Kewaunee County while other family members are in Manitowoc County. His father, Allan, is up north.

Charles Avery said the situation makes him feel like a suspect.

"I don't know why, but that's how I feel. They are just working down the line," he said. "It seems to me like they are taking the whole family down."

Dassey admitted to be stressed by the situation.

"It's hard for me when you hear your mom crying and your grandma crying," he said.

http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051111/MAN0101/511110581/1358

Also See: An Inch From Murder - Weblog

Tags: Teresa Halbach, Steven Avery

Burned Human Remains, Blood Found on Avery Property

2005-11-10T15:14:00.000-05:00

In his most revealing news conference yet since the disappearance of Teresa Halbach, Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel said this is now a homicide investigation.

His voice shaking, Sheriff Pagel said it appears someone tried to dispose of a human body by burning it. Investigators found a bone determined to be an adult female's and human teeth near the Avery family residences and where Steven Avery was living.

He said significant amounts of blood were found in Halbach's sport utility vehicle and in buildings on the Avery family property.

The sheriff said a key to Halbach's SUV was found in Steven Avery's bedroom. Special prosecutor Ken Kratz said investigators confirmed the key started the ignition. An affidavit filed in Calumet County court Thursday morning said it appeared someone tried to conceal the SUV because tree branches covered it and auto parts surrounded it.

Kratz did not name Avery as the prime suspect in the murder, however. He said the investigation has not been narrowed to a particular suspect.

"Out of respect to the Halbach family, we want to wait until the crime lab determines" whether the remains are Teresa Halbach, Sheriff Pagel added.

"Evidence is still being collected as we speak," he said.

Teresa Halbach was last seen Monday, October 31, while photographing vehicles for an auto-selling publication. Her last known stop was Avery Auto Salvage, where Steven Avery said she took some photos of a van he was selling then left, as she had many times before.

Avery was arrested Wednesday on a charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm after a rifle and muzzle-loader were found in the bedroom of a trailer, along with magazines addressed to Steven Avery that indicated he was staying there. Avery was convicted of a felony in the 1980s not related to his wrongful conviction for a rape and attempted murder in 1985.

Seven other members of his family were ordered to submit DNA, fingerprints and palm prints to compare to evidence collected during the search.

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=4101947

Tags: Teresa Halbach, Steven Avery

Woman Tries To Lure Australian Teen To Pa. For Sex

2005-11-10T14:44:00.000-05:00

SOUTH WHITEHALL TOWNSHIP, Pa. -- A Lehigh Valley mother is in very serious trouble after police say she used her home computer to lure a 13-year-old boy from Australia for sex.

Police said that Melissa Arnold, 31, attempted to get the boy to travel to her South Whitehall Township home, just outside of Allentown.

Investigators told NBC 10 that that the alleged relationship between Arnold and the teen started several months ago -- first online and then over the telephone.

Arnold posted $50,000 bail and when she went home she found her husband, John Arnold, had confronted the media with a loaded gun and police had been called in.

State police charged Melissa Arnold with one felony count of unlawful contact with a minor after they said she offered to bring the teenage boy from Australia to Pennsylvania so that the two could have sex.

"It started in a chat room and the conversation turned sexual. They continued their relationship online, and obviously it turned into something more than that," said Peter Iannace, of the Pennsylvania State Police.

Federal authorities said that they found out about Arnold's alleged relationship with the 13-year-old boy in July after the boy's father contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children through a cyber-tip hotline.

Detectives seized Arnold's home computer and said that they found numerous e-mails sent from her account to the teen's account. Police said it was unlikely anyone else in the home might have sent the e-mails.

"Based on the information we received from the subject and from the computer hard drive and from the victim, we made the arrest. I would not have arrested her if it could have been somebody else," Iannace said.

Arnold is the mother a son and teenage stepdaughter. If she is found guilty, she could face up to seven years in prison.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/5289367/detail.html

Man Charged With Molesting Girl Disappears

2005-11-10T14:36:00.000-05:00

DANVILLE, Ind. -- Authorities say they're looking for a man who agreed to plead guilty to molesting a 9-year-old relative but failed to appear at a court hearing.

A warrant was issued for the arrest of Robert Keith Jeffries, 33, of Plainfield, after he didn't attend a Friday hearing in which he was scheduled to plead guilty to molestation, police said.

Jeffries was arrested in August 2004 after a family member found video of Jeffries molesting a female 9-year-old relative, police said. Police said the girl on the video was blindfolded and appeared to be drugged.

In a deal with the Hendricks County prosecutor, Jeffries agreed to plead guilty to seven of nine charges on Oct. 24, but he balked when he was told he'd be taken into custody, authorities said. Jeffries was then scheduled to plead guilty on Friday, but he didn't attend the plea hearing.

Relatives of Jeffries have been distributing fliers, alerting the public to his fugitive status.

"Not only is he out there to where he could come back at any point in time and be around us, but he's out there with everyone else's children," said the girl's mother, who RTV6 didn't identify.

Jeffries is known to frequent the Fountain Square area on Indianapolis' southeast side.

http://www.theindychannel.com/news/5290482/detail.html

Child Molester Freed Despite Community Objections

2005-11-10T13:30:00.000-05:00

SAN DIEGO -- The San Diego County Sheriff's Department is notifying some Otay Mesa residents after a violent sexual predator was released into the community Tuesday.

Sheriff's deputies released Matthew Hedge at 5 p.m. He will live in a trailer just outside the grounds of Donovan State Prison.

Hedge, 42, pleaded guilty in 1989 to molesting two boys and two girls under the age of 14. He spent nine years in prison and went through seven years of treatment at Atascadero State Hospital.

Although Hedge's release has been strongly opposed by the community, state law requires that sex offenders be returned to the county where they committed their crimes. Hedge is no longer a wanted criminal.

Hedge has said he understands the public's fears, but has said the treatment he received at Atascadero made him far less dangerous than he once was. He said he is "not a monster."

Megan's Law permits law enforcement to warn the public about sex offenders in their communities.

Hedge will be forced to wear a global positioning device to track his whereabouts.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/5282794/detail.html

Child molester sent to prison for 30 years

2005-11-10T13:02:00.000-05:00

LOCKPORT - Child molester Frank E. Finlan II was sentenced to 30 years in prison Monday by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza.

Finlan, 34, of 76th Street, Niagara Falls, had pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted first-degree course of sexual conduct against a child. Sperrazza gave him the maximum 15 years on each count and ordered the terms to run consecutively.

Finlan began molesting an 8-year-old girl in the fall of 1997 and a 9-year-old girl in 1998. The incidents continued through April of this year.

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051109/6071333.asp

Human remains found at salvage yard

2005-11-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

Human remains have been found at a salvage yard where investigators have been searching for a missing Calumet County woman.

Authorities are not certain if the remains are those of Teresa Halbach, 25, Calumet County Sheriff Jerry Pagel said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

Earlier in the day, Steven Avery, whose family owns the salvage yard, was arrested on a weapons charge.

Avery’s attorney, Walt Kelly, told The Associated Press he did not think the weapon was related to the disappearance of Teresa Halbach, 25, whose sport utility vehicle was found Saturday at the salvage yard near Mishicot.

A criminal complaint filed in Manitowoc County accuses him of possession of a firearm by a felon.

Avery, 43, Mishicot, spent 18 years in prison on a sexual assault charge. He was released in 2003 after DNA evidence exonerated him.

The complaint, filed by a state Division of Criminal Investigation agent, stems from a search of Avery’s home Sunday at 12932 Avery Road, Two Rivers, according to Jeffrey Froehlich, an assistant district attorney for Calumet County.

The complaint said officers searching Avery’s home found a .22-caliber semiautomatic rifle and a .50-caliber blackpowder muzzleloader.

Mike Halbach, Teresa’s brother, told The Post-Crescent on Wednesday that Pagel informed his family Wednesday afternoon that Avery would be arrested. Halbach said the family did not have specifics, however.

Avery’s brother, Chuck Avery, said officers were taking his brother to the Calumet County Jail. Chuck Avery was being taken to a hospital by detectives for a DNA sample, he said.

Kelly said he feared that investigators are arresting Avery in order to pressure him into making statements about Halbach.

“This is looking more and more like a persecution not an even-handed investigation.”

Halbach, a photographer, was last seen Oct. 31 when she had three appointments for Auto Trader Magazine, taking pictures of cars for sale. One stop was at the Avery salvage yard where her vehicle was discovered by her family.

http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051109/SHE0101/311090001

Other Blog covering Teresa Halbach - An Inch From Murder

Taylor Behls Mother Foresees Indictment

2005-11-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

By Marilyn Bardsley

Richmond, VA (Crime Library) — The media obsession with the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl reached a crescendo on Oct. 6, 2005 when her remains were found in an isolated area of Mathews County, VA, approximately 70 miles away from her Richmond campus dormitory. The story then virtually disappeared on Oct. 18 when the Richmond multi-jurisdictional grand jury judge issued a gag order. Attention quickly focused on the similar story of Tara Grinstead, an Ocilla, GA, high school history teacher who went missing on Oct. 22.

Later this month the spotlight is expected to focus once again on the death of Taylor Behl when a Mathews County grand jury is expected to examine evidence linking Ben W. Fawley to Taylor Behl's death shortly after she disappeared Sept. 6. Fawley allegedly claimed that Taylor and he had a consensual encounter and that she died accidentally during "rough sex." Janet Pelasara, Taylor's mother, believes that her daughter was raped and murdered.

Pelasara told NBC News4 that "prosecutors plan to take evidence in front of the grand jury and seek an indictment." A complicating factor is the difficulty of determining with certainty the cause of Taylor's death due to decomposition of her remains. However, Pelasara says that forensic testing by the Richmond medical examiner is still going on: "The death certificate says 'pending,' which would lead one to believe that they are going to come up with a find." If the cause of death cannot be determined, it will make it more difficult for prosecutors to make murder charges stick.

Full Story at CrimeLibrary.com

Tara Grinstead update; Teresa Marie Halbach update; Taylor Behl latest.
Topic Tags: Tara Grinstead, Teresa Marie Halbach, Taylor Behl, Janet Pelasara, Ben Fawley

Womans T-Shirt reportedly sent for testing

2005-11-08T09:08:00.000-05:00

By Seamus McGraw

Ocilla, GA (Crime Library) - As the hunt for Tara Grinstead enters its third week, investigators over the weekend combed the shoreline and waters near Paradise Lake, looking for any clue to the young woman's fate or whereabouts, and recovered a woman's t-shirt.

Spokesmen for the Ocilla Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation could not immediately be reached for comment. But according to sources familiar with the probe, authorities recovered the T-Shirt, an oversized garment emblazoned with the words "Irwin County Woman's Softball." And have forwarded it to a crime lab for testing.

"It's the kind of thing you might sleep in," said one source familiar with the probe. It is known that Grinstead, who vanished from her home, apparently without a struggle, on Oct. 22, had a similar t-shirt, though sources believe hers was a different color.

Investigators have also reportedly recovered a necklace Grinstead had been seen wearing the night she disappeared. It was found over the weekend on the floor of her home, and had apparently been overlooked in earlier searches, a source said.

So far, authorities remain baffled about the nature and circumstances of the 30-year-old high school history teacher and former beauty queen's disappearance. Grinstead vanished on the night of Oct. 22, which was the night of the annual Sweet Potato Festival and beauty pageant that Grinstead had attended. According to authorities, Grinstead left the pageant and went to have dinner at the home of the former local school superintendent and his family. She was last seen around 11 p.m.

She was reported missing Monday morning when she failed to turn up at school. Police responded to her home and found little out of place. The clothes she wore that night were found in the home, as was her cellular phone, which according to sources familiar with her habits, she never left behind.

Investigators have been combing her computer hard drives, both from home and Irwin County High School where she taught 11th grade, they have interviewed scores of people, including long time friend and confident Capt. Heath Dykes of the Perry Police Department, Anthony Vickers, a former student who was charged with a disorderly person's offence after he allegedly banged repeatedly on the school teacher's door, and her former long time boyfriend, Marcus Harper. Friends and others familiar with Grinstead's history say she had been on "emotional roller coaster" for months following her breakup with Harper, and investigators had been hoping that he and the other men in her life could provide some insight into her state of mind at the time of her disappearance. Authorities have also been talking to the son of her landlord, and to a local man, described by neighbors, as suffering from emotional problems.

So far, however, the investigation has yielded few results, and while family members and friends privately acknowledge that they are beginning to fear the worse, authorities are holding steadfast to their insistence that her disappearance remains a missing person's case and there is, as yet, no evidence of foul play.

Tara Grinstead Publicity Mixed Blessing
Tara Grinstead's State of Mind
Search for Tara Grinstead Involves Entire Community
Beauty Queen & Teacher Tara Grinstead Goes Missing

Full Story by Shamus McGraw - http://www.crimelibrary.com/news/original/1105/0601_womas_t-shirt_found_in_Grinstead_probe.html

Topic Tag: Tara Grinstead

Headline Missing Person Tag: Teresa Halbach

Jury Selected for Two Separate Child Molestation Cases

2005-11-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

Attorneys chose people to serve in two disturbing jury trials in Indianapolis. The potential jurors found each case had something sadly unusual in common.

Ramon Taylor faces six counts of sexual misconduct with a minor. The alleged victim is a 15-year-old boy. Prosecutors say Taylor was a choir director at St. John's Missionary Baptist Church. Attorneys asked potential jurors if they thought hearing the details of a child molestation case would bother them.

The judge excused Jim Ellars from serving on the Taylor jury. "I think the only issue in the case that really would be a bother to me was the issue of the age of the people involved,” he said. Ellars said people should hold adults who work with children to a much higher standard "because you have the responsibility of dealing with children, and it gives you a greater burden of taking care of those children."

But the dismissed jurors weren't finished. Judges found there weren't enough to fill the pool for a second case, so Ellars and the others were escorted across the hall, to another courtroom.

That's where R.H. Duncan is on trial. Duncan faces five counts of child molestation. He was the youth counselor at Greater One Way Apostolic Church.

The 12 year-old female victim told investigators some of the alleged incidents happened at the church.

Prevent Child Abuse Indiana reports more than 60,000 cases of child maltreatment in each of the last two years. Caseworkers uncovered 13 incidents of substantiated child abuse for every 1,000 children in Indiana.

During jury selection, attorneys asked Jim Ellars if children sometimes lie about what happened.

"Well, it certainly has to be considered because you certainly can't depend on a child telling the truth just because they're a child,” he said.

The judges told jurors to expect tough testimony in two disturbingly similar cases.

The Indiana Department of Child Services estimates more than 56 children are abused or neglected every day. State law says anyone who suspects child abuse or neglect must report it to the police.

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=4085674

Court rejects Missouri child abuse registry

2005-11-06T16:13:00.000-05:00

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- A judge declared Missouri's child abuse registry unconstitutional Thursday, ruling that suspected offenders deserved a court-like hearing before being listed.

The registry is kept secret from the general public, but is used by child care providers and others to screen current and potential employees.

Circuit Judge Richard Callahan concluded that people's reputations and professional careers were damaged when their names were placed in the child abuse registry before a due-process hearing.

The Department of Social Services said it was likely to appeal the case to the Missouri Supreme Court. Callahan suspended the effect of his judgment pending an appeal.

Callahan's ruling stemmed from a 2002 instance of alleged sexual abuse at the Faith House child care facility in St. Louis. Although they were not accused of abuse themselves, founder Mildred Jamison and nurse Betty Dotson were listed on the child abuse registry based on probable cause of neglect.

The decision was upheld by the Department of Social Services' Child Abuse and Neglect Review Board, which holds only informal hearings, not ones following judicial procedures. Decisions by the review panel can be appealed to a judge, but the listing occurred before that happened.

Callahan said it violated constitutional due-process rights to list people on the registry prior to holding a hearing before a neutral decision-maker in which witnesses are under oath, can be cross-examined and can be compelled to testify.

He also said the hearings must use a tougher-to-prove criterion of "preponderance of the evidence" instead of "probable cause" - a change already made by a 2004 law.

Jamison said Callahan's ruling was "wonderful, because many people don't know what the due process is. Their names go on, and they don't know about the appeals process or any of that."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Child_Abuse_Registry.html

Man convicted in rape of 6-year-old girl

2005-11-06T08:55:00.000-05:00

MONTESANO, Wash. - A 55-year-old man convicted of raping a 6-year-old girl will be sentenced in December in Grays Harbor Superior Court.

Randy Sutherby of Montesano is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 19. He was convicted Thursday of first-degree child rape, first-degree child molestation and 10 counts of possession of child pornography for images found on his home computer of young girls engaging in sex acts.

Sutherby faces 20 to 26 1/2 years in prison.

During trial, the 6-year-old girl described to a jury how Sutherby, a heavy equipment operator, molested her last year.

"The little girl was a trouper," said deputy prosecutor Paul Conroy.

Scoutmaster Arrested In Internet Sex Sting

2005-11-05T02:24:00.000-05:00

Man Thought He Was Communicating With 12-Year-Old

BENSALEM, Pa. -- A local scoutmaster is in jail after undercover agents arrested him Friday in an Internet child sex sting.

Prosecutors said that David Mayberry is a dangerous man. State agents arrested the 50-year-old Montgomery County man, accusing him of trying to engage in sex acts with a gay 12-year-old he met on the Internet. However, prosecutors said that Mayberry was not messaging a 12-year-old -- it was an agent with the attorney general's office.

"I can't describe the specific acts he wanted to engage in. You won't hear me repeat them on TV," said Tom Corbett, the attorney general.

Corbett said that the messages are too graphic to repeat. He also said that Mayberry works with children.
"We have discovered Mr. Mayberry is an assistant scout master with Troop 531 in Oaks, Pa.

Mayberry was picked up by police after arranging to meet the teen he thought he was talking with at a Bensalem hotel. Instead of a 12-year-old boy, the agents showed up.

"In my mind, anyone who does this is evil in nature," Corbett said.

http://www.nbc10.com/news/5253344/detail.html

Sex Offender Accused Of Another Assault

2005-11-05T02:14:00.000-05:00

COLUMBUS, Ohio -- A registered sex offender and landlord is behind bars Friday, accused of raping a tenant in his building.

As county officials were working to evict a man from his home near a school, he allegedly held a woman at knifepoint and committed another sexual assault, NBC 4's Nancy Burton reported.

The Franklin County prosecutor and sheriff were preparing to file a lawsuit against Michael Davis, a registered sex offender, and others to get them to move away from area schools. Now, when police serve Davis with the lawsuit, they will see him in jail, instead of at his home.

Davis, 39, was living in his home on the city's east side until Thursday, when he was arrested and charged with rape, kidnapping and felonious assault.

"Where it's alleged he's a landlord and he raped a tenant," said Ron O'Brien, Franklin County prosecutor.
O'Brien said one of the victims was held at knifepoint for hours.

"It's alleged that the multiple offenses occurred over a period of 10 to 12 hours," he said.

What disturbs O'Brien even more than the allegations is the fact that three months before the alleged rape, a letter was sent to Davis ordering him to leave his home because he was too close to a school.

O'Brien said it doesn't matter that Davis hasn't been convicted of preying on children.

"Those are serious sex offenses and the purpose of the 1,000 feet within a school law is to keep any sexual offender, regardless of who the victim was, away from children so that isn't a temptation," O'Brien said.

Davis is scheduled for arraignment on Monday.

Prosecutors will ask for a high bond because of Davis' prior conviction of sexual battery involving a woman in Cincinnati.

http://www.nbc4i.com/news/5254226/detail.html

Book Reviews and Testimonials

2005-11-04T08:12:00.000-05:00

"I appreciate your having the courage to come forward and share. I find that it really helps other victims to know that they are not alone in their pain and their feelings.

I am also writing about the experiences of my own childhood sexual abuse. My experience was very different from yours but I know all too well your pain.

I was referred to your book by a defense attorney in Richmond that is handling the capital murder case of a young man here in Virginia. He has been accused of killing the man that abducted and assaulted me as a child.

He was also the victim of childhood sexual abuse. She was hoping to gain some insight into this young man's mind by reading about your experiences.

We are working very hard to save this young man's life so maybe your desire to help others through this book will result in saving him as well."

pma

My Book Reviews and Testimonials - Click Here

Convicted Killer Admits At Least 12 Slayings

2005-11-03T08:44:00.000-05:00

Detective: 'He Enjoyed Raping And Killing'

MOBILE, Ala. -- Jeremy Bryan Jones, a suspected serial killer convicted in the rape and murder of an Alabama woman, has admitted at least 12 more slayings in four other states, authorities said Wednesday.

"He enjoyed raping and killing," said Mobile County sheriff's detective Paul Burch.

Jones, 32, of Miami, Okla., faces a possible death penalty at sentencing Dec. 1 on his capital murder conviction in the killing of Lisa Marie Nichols, 44, of rural Turnerville, Ala.

He also is charged with killing a teenage girl in Georgia and a woman in Louisiana. He is a suspect in 10 other deaths -- seven in Oklahoma, two in Georgia and one in Kansas -- and could be linked to four others in Georgia, local and state law enforcement officials said at a news conference.

Alabama Attorney General Troy King described Jones as "a monster who would kill without remorse."
Of the 13 victims Jones is suspected of killing, 10 were women. The four additional victims he may be linked to were described by authorities as Atlanta-area prostitutes. They would bring to seven the number of his possible victims in the metro Atlanta area.

King said his office would assist other states in prosecuting Jones. But King is seeking the death penalty for Jones in Alabama and said he has not received an extradition request to send Jones to another jurisdiction.
Investigators said they were unable to comment on the other crimes during Jones' trial. But Burch said Jones gave them the names of victims and locations of the other killings.

Burch said Jones publicly maintained his innocence in the presence of his mother and girlfriend, but privately gave detectives details of the crimes, information that has been shared with authorities in the other states.
Jones' defense attorneys have said he fabricated links to other crimes, but authorities Wednesday felt he was not making them up.

Burch said Jones was "very nonchalant and matter-of-fact" in recounting the rapes and killings.

Jones is accused in New Orleans of raping and killing Katherine Collins, 46, whose body was found in February 2004 in a grassy lot about a block from the truckers' entrance to the Port of New Orleans. Because the body had decomposed, detectives could not identify her until October, after a forensic anthropologist reconstructed Collins' face.

Lake Stevens man faces possible charges of rape, unlawful imprisonment

2005-11-02T21:10:00.000-05:00

LAKE STEVENS, Wash. - A Lake Stevens man is behind bars and faces possible charges of rape, assault and unlawful imprisonment after police say he held two teens in his home against their will.

The suspect, whom we are not identifying yet since he has yet to be formally charged, will make his first appearance in court later Wednesday.

One day after deputies say a Lake Stevens man held a 16-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl in his home against their will, grief counselors are on hand at the teens high school to discuss the ordeal.

“We have about 18 students in the counseling center, working throughout their concerns and issues and questions and anger and all those kind of things,” said Arlene Hulten, spokesperson for Lake Stevens School.

According to investigators it all started Monday night at a Halloween party at the suspects home. The suspect’s younger brother attends school with the teens and they were all at the party with fellow classmates. Investigators say hours later things took a turn for the worse when the suspect wouldn't allow the two victims to go home.

“We don't know why he would choose to target these two,” said Deputy Rich Niebusch, Snohomish County Sheriff. “Really his mind set was his own.”

It took several hours, but the SWAT team finally convinced the suspect to come out and release the teens Tuesday afternoon. Although investigators wouldn't say if alcohol or drugs played a factor in this case, the suspect's mother said her son has a problem.

“He's a good kid,” said Gayl Spilman, suspect's mother. “He has an alcohol problem, but he's never been violent before.”

“I don't know how things got out of hand. It's totally out of character,” added Spilman.

For now investigators say they will continue to talk with witnesses who were at the party and try to figure out a time line of what happened and why?

http://www.king5.com/localnews/stories/NW_110205WABlakestevensmanLJ.1fb59ff3.html

Akron Attorney Pleads Guilty To Child Rape Charges

2005-11-02T21:04:00.000-05:00

AKRON, Ohio -- A former Akron attorney pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he raped a 4-month-old baby.

John Lockhart pleaded guilty to all 10 counts against him, including three rape charges. He was sentenced to life in prison.

A nationwide manhunt for Lockhart ended in June when he was arrested in California.

He fled Akron 10 months before while the rape case against him was under investigation. Officials said allegations surfaced after a co-worker discovered child pornography on Lockhart's computer.

http://www.newsnet5.com/news/5235237/detail.html

Three More Sexual Assault Counts Filed Against De La Fuente

2005-11-02T07:14:00.000-05:00

OAKLAND -- The son of Oakland City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio De La Fuente, who already was accused of raping two women, was formally charged Tuesday with three new sexual assault counts involving two more women.

Ignacio Rafael De La Fuente Jr., 32, is now charged with a total of five sexual assault-related offenses involving four different women.

On May 3, De La Fuente Jr. was charged with raping a 15-year-old girl in April and a 21-year-old woman in August of 2004.

At a short hearing that was attended by his father and mother, De La Fuente Jr. was charged with three new counts involving two different women on Oct. 21, 2003.

The new charges are assault with intent to commit rape, digital penetration by force and forced oral copulation of someone under the age of 16.

Represented by a new lawyer, Robert Beles, who replaces Jesse Garcia, De La Fuente Jr. pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him.

De La Fuente Jr., who's being held in custody without bail, is scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Nov. 29 to set future court dates.

There's a gag order in the case, so Beles and prosecutor Kevin Murphy were unable to comment on the new charges.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/5224536/detail.html

Connecticut Man Accused Of Trying To Kidnap Teenage Girl

2005-11-01T17:54:00.000-05:00

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. -- A man awaiting trial on a kidnapping charge in Waterbury, Conn., has been charged with attempting to abduct a teenage girl from the parking lot of an upstate New York high school.

John Regan, 48, of Waterbury, was arraigned Tuesday in Saratoga Springs City Court on charges of attempted first- and second-degree kidnapping, and attempted unlawful imprisonment. He was ordered held without bond in the Saratoga County Jail.

A 17-year-old Saratoga Springs High School senior was getting into her car after cross-country practice Monday when Regan pulled up in his van and tried to pull her into the vehicle, police said.

The girl screamed and managed to fight Regan off. Several people nearby called police and someone else followed the van, which had Massachusetts plates, and reported it parked on a street near the school.
Saratoga Springs Police Chief Edward Moore said police do not believe Monday's attempted abduction was a random act.

"It appears to us that he selected this particular victim," Moore told WNYT television in Albany. "It appears that this is a very organized offender from what we can see ... We don't want to release the specific details that lead us to believe that, but we feel it was his intent to abduct her, to take her to another location."

In October 2004, Regan was charged in connection with a decade-old sexual assault case in Waterbury. The statute of limitations on sexual assault had run out, so he was charged with kidnapping. He allegedly slipped into the victim's home while she was sleeping, bound and blindfolded her, and sexually assaulted her.
Regan pleaded not guilty to that charge and was released on $350,000 bond. A trial date has not yet been set.
Police started looking at him for the 1993 rape case after he was accused of attempting to assault a 21-year-old co-worker at the building supply company where he worked.

In 2001, a jury awarded the victim $190,000 in a civil lawsuit she filed against several police officers who had accused her of lying about being raped to cover up an affair.

http://www.wnbc.com/news/5221014/detail.html

Tara Grinstead: Massive search for missing Irwin Co. teacher

2005-11-01T09:27:00.000-05:00

Ocilla- More than 50 people on horseback and ATV's searched the wooded areas of Ocilla and Irwin County for any sign of Tara Grinstead. Last Saturday was the last time anyone heard from the Irwin County High School Teacher.

"If you're with someone and you're going to go talk or whatever, this might be a place where you might come to talk and it's also if you're going to take, you know it's a very secluded area," said Sonya Popken, Volunteer.
Many volunteers turned up to help with Sunday's search. Eight days after she disappeared, police say they have few clues about what happened to Tara.

"We're looking at everything, we're not ruling out whether it's an abduction, missing person, we're looking at any possibility," said Chief Billy Hancock, Ocilla Police Department.

Her family, including her brother in law say it's unlike Tara to just vanish. "She loved her dog Dolly, and Dolly was there and her cat Herman was there in the house, she always made arrangements for someone to keep them if she's gone anywhere," said Larry Gattis, Brother in law.

"We don't know what was in her pocketbook, we know she had accounts, but we don't know what she had in her purse with her at the time," said Hancock.

Teachers who worked with Tara at Irwin County High School manned the command center and grade Tara's papers hoping for the best.

"That's what we're hoping for that she just needed a break and that she's going to come back and we're all going to open our arms when she does come back, we want Tara back whatever, we want Tara back," said Jenny Abercrombie, Irwin High Department Chair.

Her family waits patiently for any word of what may have happened.

"We're worried and really hope that someone can come up with something so we can find her and we're just concerned about everyone because she was loved by many people," said Gabe Gattis, Tara's nephew.
If you're interested in more information about the search for Tara or know what may have happened to her you can contact the www.findtara.com web site or the Ocilla Police Department web site at www.ocillapolice.com

Missing Woman Found Dead

2005-10-31T16:14:00.000-05:00

ATLANTA -- The search for a missing mother of three ended Saturday with the discovery of her body -- stuffed inside a trash can.

Miracle Lynette Farmer, 34, was found about a block from her northwest Atlanta home. She had been strangled and left in a garbage can at an empty house for rent on Argyle Drive.

Her boyfriend, Horace Brown, 32, was arrested and charged with murder as well as concealing a death. Farmer was last seen on Monday.

A neighbor said the couple had volatile relationship.

"They argued a lot," said the neighbor, who asked not to be identified. "They would be carrying on pretty good."

Farmer's three children are staying with an aunt who arrived Friday from New Orleans.

Police spent much of Saturday searching Farmer's home for evidence.

Pastor Arrested for Failing to Register as Sex Offender

2005-10-29T15:40:00.000-04:00

A man who refers to himself as Bishop faces one to five years in jail, if he is found guilty, for failing to register as a sex offender in West Virginia. West Virginia State Trooper Brian Morris investigated a tip that Ranson Parris, 63 years old, was living in the former town of Jefferson for the past two months. "He was running a church in Jefferson.

He claimed to be a bishop, to be a pillar of the community. He is a sex offender," Morris said. By law, sex offenders must register within thirty days of moving to the Mountain State. The New Hope Metropolitan Community Church and Christian Center along MacCorkle Avenue posts signs of upcoming fundraisers for the homeless and gospel sings. Parris declined to comment when 13 News asked to speak with him regarding the charges. Neighbors never saw a Sunday service at the church.

Fresh Seafood Company Market and Restaurant owner, Tim Cerullo said he was surprised by the charges. "Someone who was supposed to be a preacher and doing that thing, so apparently the whole thing was just false," he said. Trooper Morris says Parris was convicted of a sex crime with a minor in California.

Parris did register as a sex offender in Florida but gave a Roanoke, Virginia address.The 63 year old man has a long rap sheet that spans several states and includes sixteen aliases, said Morris. Parris spent two hours in jail before posting five hundred dollars bond. The felony charge of failing to register as a convicted sex offender carries a penalty of one to five years. Parris' preliminary hearing is set for November 4th.

Man sentenced for torture, rape, and murder involving teen boys

2005-10-27T13:37:00.000-04:00

James Moore will spend the rest of his life in prison.

He was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Justin Bogdanik, another 24 years for kidnapping Bogdanik, and another 18 years for the sexual assault and kidnapping of DJ Dempsey.

It is alleged that Moore drugged and tortured Bogdanik in July 2003, including gluing his eyes and genitals.The second case accuses Moore of kidnapping DJ Dempsey, then drugging, raping, and ditching him off on a highway.Moore pleaded no contest in both cases.

Dempsey's family says this two-year nightmare is now over.

Dempsey's father was the only family member of the victims to speak in court, saying Moore ruined his son's life.

Moore apologized to both families, saying he hopes they will forgive him.

DJ Dempsey says that will be very tough.

Key Evidence To Be Revealed Friday In Murder Of Student

2005-10-27T13:22:00.000-04:00

WILMINGTON, Delaware -- Prosecutors were expected to reveal key facts Friday in their case against a 34-year-old man accused of raping and strangling a University of Delaware student from Westchester County.
The hearing will determine whether James Cooke should remain held without bail until his trial and whether the charges merit a possible death sentence.

Cooke was charged in June with the murder of Lindsey Bonistall, 20, of White Plains. The woman's body was found in her bathtub after her apartment was set on fire.

Her father said he planned to attend Friday's hearing.

Tag: Lindsey Bonistall

Registered sex offender indicted in molestation case

2005-10-26T08:01:00.000-04:00

WARNER ROBINS - A registered sex offender was indicted Tuesday by a Houston County grand jury on child molestation and related charges.

Robert William Lathrop, 27, of 134 Francis St. in Warner Robins, is accused of attempting to climb through the bedroom window of a sleeping 11-year-old Warner Robins girl at 4 a.m. Sept. 15 with the intent of molesting her, police Lt. Bobby Brantley said Tuesday. The girl screamed and the intruder ran.

The investigation of that incident led police to discover that Lathrop had been suspected of molesting the same girl two years earlier, Brantley said.

A grand jury Tuesday indicted Lathrop on charges of enticing a child for indecent purposes and child molestation in 2003, Brantley said.

Brantley declined to release details of earlier incident. But the indictment accuses Lathrop of luring the child into a laundry room and fondling her genital area.

Lathrop knew the young girl's family, Brantley said.

The grand jury also indicted Lathrop on charges of criminal attempt to commit burglary, criminal attempt to commit child molestation and Peeping Tom in the Sept. 15 incident involving the same child.

The indictment also accused him of failure to comply with the Georgia Sex Registry. Lathrop moved to Warner Robins two months ago from Savannah to live with his parents , Warner Robins police detective Chris Rooks said.

The law requires that he register with the local sheriff's office within 10 days of moving.
Lathrop was being held Tuesday in the Houston County jail.

His name and photo did not come up when typed into the GBI's online sex offender registry at www.ganet.org/gbi/. Sheriff's Sgt. Charlene Giles, who compiles the registry information for Houston County, said that under state law, when a sex offender is jailed, he or she comes off the registry until released from custody.

Registered sex offender indicted in molestation case

2005-10-26T07:56:00.000-04:00

WARNER ROBINS - A registered sex offender was indicted Tuesday by a Houston County grand jury on child molestation and related charges.

Robert William Lathrop, 27, of 134 Francis St. in Warner Robins, is accused of attempting to climb through the bedroom window of a sleeping 11-year-old Warner Robins girl at 4 a.m. Sept. 15 with the intent of molesting her, police Lt. Bobby Brantley said Tuesday. The girl screamed and the intruder ran.

The investigation of that incident led police to discover that Lathrop had been suspected of molesting the same girl two years earlier, Brantley said.

A grand jury Tuesday indicted Lathrop on charges of enticing a child for indecent purposes and child molestation in 2003, Brantley said.

Brantley declined to release details of earlier incident. But the indictment accuses Lathrop of luring the child into a laundry room and fondling her genital area.

Lathrop knew the young girl's family, Brantley said.

The grand jury also indicted Lathrop on charges of criminal attempt to commit burglary, criminal attempt to commit child molestation and Peeping Tom in the Sept. 15 incident involving the same child.

The indictment also accused him of failure to comply with the Georgia Sex Registry. Lathrop moved to Warner Robins two months ago from Savannah to live with his parents , Warner Robins police detective Chris Rooks said.

The law requires that he register with the local sheriff's office within 10 days of moving.

Lathrop was being held Tuesday in the Houston County jail.

His name and photo did not come up when typed into the GBI's online sex offender registry at www.ganet.org/gbi/. Sheriff's Sgt. Charlene Giles, who compiles the registry information for Houston County, said that under state law, when a sex offender is jailed, he or she comes off the registry until released from custody.

Is Your Child Visiting A Sex Offender This Halloween?

2005-10-25T09:25:00.000-04:00

A Rescue 4 Investigation [www.clickondetroit.com] is warning local parents and kids of what houses trick-or-treaters should avoid on Halloween.

Rescue 4 told you how some states monitor sexual predators during Halloween. In Florida, New York and California, sexual predators on parole are required to attend a counseling session or allow a police home visit. But in Michigan, there were no laws on the books or specific rules set up by local police to track predators, until now.

"We think proactively. We try to think in advance about what some of the potential problems may be for children and young people around Halloween," said Warren Evans of the Wayne County Sheriff's department.
State Police have designed an online registry to help parents protect their children from potential predators. You can research the Michigan Sex Offender Registry by clicking here.

State officials have also provided a resource for tracking convicted criminals through the Michigan Department of Corrections' Offender Tracking Information System, known as OTIS. You can access OTIS by clicking here.

Guardian charged with sex assault

2005-10-24T09:05:00.000-04:00

A Fort Lee man [NorthJersey.com] has been charged with sexually assaulting the teenage daughter of a former girlfriend, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said Friday.

Ronald Frate, 39, of Summit Avenue was acting as a guardian of the teenager at the time of the assaults, which allegedly started when the victim was 13 years old, Molinelli said. The girl is now 16.

Detectives from the prosecutor's Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Unit and the Fair Lawn Police Department arrested Frate at 7:35 p.m. Thursday, Molinelli said.

During the alleged assaults, Frate, employed by SMART Construction in Hackensack, was living in the household with the girlfriend and her daughter, Molinelli said.

Frate was charged with aggravated sexual assault, aggravated criminal sexual contact, child endangerment and contempt, Molinelli said.

Bail was set at $75,000.

Convicted child molester sentenced in Fremont

2005-10-23T08:09:00.000-04:00

FREMONT, Calif. -- A Fremont car salesman convicted of molesting six children has been sentenced to 420 years to life in prison. 48-year-old Brian Bud Benson was sentenced by Alameda County Judge Dennis McLaughlin on Thursday at the Fremont Hall of Justice.

Benson was convicted of 29 counts of child molestation in July after a monthlong trial in which six child victims _ five girls and one boy _ testified against him. Prosecutors portrayed Benson as a scheming car salesman who earned the trust of three single mothers to gain access to their kids.

The victims, who ranged in age from 6 to 13 at the time of the incidents, told police they were fondled, raped or forced to perform oral sex by Benson between May 1996 and April 2003.

Police: Suspect Lures Girls With Promise Of Cell Phones

2005-10-23T07:56:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK -- Police have identified an alleged sexual predator who allegedly lures teenage girls into his van with the promise of a free cell phone, NewsChannel 4 reported on Friday.

The suspect was identified as 32-year-old Leonel Solis. He is wanted in connection with the rape of a 15-year-old girl in the Bronx and the sexual abuse of a 12-year-old girl in Harlem.

Police said the attacks took place inside a white minivan with Ohio license plates.

Officer Gets 4 Years In Prison For Sex With Inmates

2005-10-23T07:49:00.000-04:00

BRIDGETON, N.J. -- A former senior corrections officer at a state prison in Cumberland County has been sentenced to four years in prison for having sex with two male inmates.

Thomas Schwegel, 44, a corrections officer for more than a decade, pleaded guilty in August to official misconduct.

Schwegel's attorney, Steve Scheffler, questioned the sentence imposed Friday by Superior Court Judge John Waters, saying the separate sexual encounters that occurred between 2001 and 2002 were consensual.

Scheffler also argued that leniency was shown in other cases in which prison officials were accused or convicted of having heterosexual relationships with inmates.

Assistant prosecutor Linda Lawhun said the case was about abuse of power, not a matter of sexual orientation.

Man accused of molestation pleas not guilty

2005-10-22T11:17:00.000-04:00

Judge Thomas Milligan entered not-guilty pleas Friday in Montgomery Circuit Court on behalf of a man accused of child molesting.

Montgomery County Police Officer Jeremy Hughes arrested Patrick Spurgeon, 9067 N. Ind. 25, Wingate, Sept. 30 on a bench warrant issued by the court. Spurgeon, 49, is charged with three class C felony counts of child molesting, following an investigation by Detective Sgt. Lonnie Jones.

A class C felony in Indiana carries a possible prison sentence of up to eight years. Because all the felony counts against Spurgeon happened in one episode of criminal activity, Indiana criminal code mandates a conviction not exceed the presumptive sentence for the felony that is one class higher than the one for which the defendant is charged. In Spurgeon’s case, he could serve up to 10 years with the Indiana Department of Correction.

Jones said there were two female victims, acquaintances of Spurgeon, who were younger than age 10 at the time of the crime. The contact happened over the course of one-two months this summer. Jones said the investigation began when the crime was reported by a family member of one of the alleged victims.

Spurgeon is currently out on parole. His next court hearing is scheduled for Dec. 9.

Spurgeon was convicted of one count of child molesting as a class C felony in August 1998. He was sentenced to the Indiana Department of Correction for eight years, with six to be served and two to be suspended on condition he serve probation through electronic home monitoring one year and the other year establish residence, have employment, abstain from drugs and alcohol and seek treatment.

In October 2002, Spurgeon was found guilty of violating his parole, a class D felony.

Joseph Duncan used the Groene kids to make porn videos

2005-10-22T06:46:00.000-04:00

I don't think that I could post an article with news - any worse than this title.

"Judge allows suspected serial killer's defense lawyer to get copies of clips"

"Suspected serial killer Joseph Duncan used his young captives to produce child pornography videos, authorities acknowledged for the first time Wednesday."

"Last month, federal prosecutors said Duncan may face charges for allegedly producing child pornography while holding Dylan and Shasta Groene at remote campsites in western Montana. The federal case, which will likely include charges for kidnapping and Dylan Groene's murder, won't be tried until after Duncan's trial in Kootenai County.

According to court documents, authorities seized a digital camera, digital video camera, laptop computers, DVDs and digital memory cards from the Jeep. In obtaining a warrant to search the computer, cameras and memory cards, sheriff's Detective Brad Maskell said authorities believed they may hold evidence of homicide, kidnapping, child sexual abuse and child pornography.

Douglas told the Associated Press this week that the images are 'graphic and disturbing.'"

This Full Disturbing Story is here

You should also see Steve Huffs recent post on his blog - The Dark Side entitled:
Joseph Edward Duncan III, Filmmaker. The Real and Hideous Truth.

Sex offender arrested on new molestation charge

2005-10-21T13:37:00.000-04:00

A registered sex offender who served more than a year in prison for statutory rape and child molestation faces similar charges after being arrested Saturday in Henry County - Georgia.

Police arrested Michael Lee Peck, 21, of McDonough, on charges of statutory rape, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery, child molestation and sodomy. Henry County police Lt. Jason Bolton said the allegations involve two 13-year-old girls Peck reportedly picked up from Monroe and took to a home in Stockbridge where the alleged crimes took place.

According to the Georgia Department of Corrections, Peck was convicted Oct. 15, 2002, in Henry County and sentenced to two years for statutory rape and child molestation. He has been a registered sex offender since his release from prison in July 2004.

Henry police Detective Sam Cox said there may be more victims. Anyone with information about other incidents is asked to call Cox at 770-954-2484

Missing student attracts media

2005-10-21T09:03:00.000-04:00

National attention turns to ISU case.

The search for a missing 21-year-old Illinois State University student is attracting national media attention that could yield new leads for a criminal investigation into the weeklong disappearance, authorities said Thursday.
Police have fielded a flood of calls, including from ABC's "Good Morning America" and MSNBC, about their search for Olamide Adeyooye, a missing senior from Berkeley in suburban Chicago.
"It is helpful because we don't know the whereabouts of the car, we don't know the whereabouts of the individual. It could be very far away, so getting the word out is a great thing," said Normal police Lt. Mark Kotte.
Thursday night, hundreds of people, many friends of Adeyooye and others complete strangers, joined outside ISU's Milner Library in a candlelight vigil organized by the Black Student Union as a symbol of support for her family and to pray for her safe return.
Her father, Adiodua Adeyooye, said his family was overwhelmed the outpouring of support.
"We still believe," he said. "We still believe that she'll be alive."
Adeyooye was last seen Oct. 13 renting a movie at a Normal video store. Her family reported her missing two days later after she missed classes and her weekend job as a waitress. Police say her green 1996 Toyota Corolla also is missing.
The disappearance was labeled a missing-person case until Wednesday, when police launched a criminal investigation after finding personal items belonging to Adeyooye near her off-campus apartment. Police have declined to elaborate but say evidence collected at her apartment and interviews led authorities to suspect foul play.
"We suspect criminal activity, we just don't know what we have. There are all sorts of options, but you don't want to have tunnel vision," Kotte said.
Foot, canine and air searches continued Thursday for Adeyooye, who was to graduate in December with a degree in criminal laboratory sciences. The FBI and Illinois State Police are aiding the investigation.
Friends say Adeyooye showed no signs of problems recently and planned to return to the Chicago area and work at a hospital lab after graduation.
Kotte said police are seeking interviews with six to eight "persons of interest," including friends and people who may have seen Adeyooye before she disappeared. Friends have sent out messages on Web sites and blogs seeking help finding her.
Police and ISU officials say that so far, the disappearance has not caused widespread worry about safety among parents and students at the 20,000-student campus.
"We've had a few calls, but we're not hearing anything in large numbers or even small numbers, to be honest," said ISU spokesman Jay Groves.
At Thursday night's vigil, ISU President Al Bowman encouraged students to pull together and "remain resilient in the face of adversity."
Clarence Evans, a friend and classmate of Adeyooye, told the crowd to stay strong and have faith. "I know I'm going to physically see her another day," he said.
"It's kind of scary, because you don't even know what's happening," said Black Student Union President Shemika Perkins, who helped organize the vigil.
Perkins said safety awareness has been heightened on campus.
Megan Covington, a sophomore from Taylorville, said there is an overall feeling of uneasiness on campus.
Covington does not know Adeyooye but stopped studying in the library to attend the vigil.
"If this happened to any one of my friends, I would hope people would show support," she said.

Tags: Olamide Adeyooye

Local Mom Finds Web Site For Pedophiles

2005-10-21T08:42:00.000-04:00

EVERETT, Washington -- A Web site that promoted local family attractions as prime spots where pedophiles could look for young girls has been shut down.

A concerned mother found the Web site designed as a guide for pedophiles.

"I had never seen anything like this in my life," said Denise Mayer. "I was nauseated. I was very upset. I don't think everything I have ever seen has made me that sick to my stomach on the Internet."

It gave details about how and where in Western Washington to meet young girls as young as 4 or 5 years old.

One place the site recommended was the Seattle waterfront. Another was a carnival at an Everett Middle School.

An official at the school said police officers and adult chaperones would be on the lookout if any pedophiles show up.

The FBI and Everett police are trying to find the person who started it.

Volunteer arrested in alleged molestation

2005-10-20T14:23:00.000-04:00

CARSON CITY - A former president of the Carson City Railroad Association and volunteer at the Mills Park Train remained in jail Wednesday, accused of fondling a 5-year-old girl in the train station's employee bathroom.

James Merle Howard, 57, was arrested Friday and is being held on $25,000 bail. According to Detective Cate Summers, a 5-year-old girl told her mother that Howard took her into the bathroom Oct. 13, removed her clothing and touched her genitals while kissing her.

Summers said the incident came to light when the girl complained of discomfort after the mother asked if she had fun on the train.

Friday, during a taped interview, Howard initially denied the incident, then "confessed that he had touched the child's (genitals) and that he had kissed her on the mouth," the arrest report states.

The Carson City Railroad Association is a nonprofit organization which began in 1975 and seven years later opened the Mills Park Train.

Parks director Roger Moellendorf said a memo was sent to parks employees and Railroad Association members barring Howard from the park.

Schwartzmiller roommate is going to trial

2005-10-20T14:16:00.000-04:00

SAN JOSE, California - Fred Everts, the former roommate of serial child molester Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller, was held over for trial after a 10-year-old boy testified at a preliminary hearing Wednesday that Everts molested him more than 10 times.

A police detective also testified that Everts confessed to molesting three boys, including a 3-year old, and that police found nude and sexually suggestive photos of two of the victims.

"He did in fact admit to molesting (one victim) in the living room and bedroom," Det. Robert Dillon, of the San Jose Police Department, told the court.

Superior court Judge Thomas Hastings ordered Everts be held without bail until later this month when a trial date can be set. Everts is charged with 16 felony counts, including forced lewd and lascivious activity on a child younger than 14, lewd and lascivious acts, and taking a sexually explicit photo of a minor. He has pleaded not guilty.

San Jose police have said that Everts turned up as part of their investigation of Schwartzmiller, who authorities say could be the most prolific child molester ever. When he was arrested in May, investigators said they discovered notebooks with 36,700 handwritten entries of boys' names, descriptions of their anatomy and codes for suspected sex acts.

Everts, 35, sat shackled in Santa Clara County Superior Court as the boy with spiked black hair accused him of fondling him on nights when he and his cousin stayed at the home Everts shared with Schwartzmiller.

The boy said he met the pair about two years ago when they gave his family a sofa. Everts and Schwartzmiller invited the boy's family for Thanksgiving dinner, helped him with his math homework, played soccer with him and hosted sleep overs.

He said Everts began sexually abusing him when he was 9 and it lasted until earlier this year.

The boy, who was not being named because of his age and the nature of the allegations, offered graphic details about the alleged abuse after spending about 10 minutes discussing with the prosecutor how he would describe his genitals.

He said he only told his story when officers approached him.

When asked by prosecutor Steve Fein why he never told anyone what Everts did to him, the boy said, "It was like embarrassing for me."

Everts, who has two previous molestation convictions and who met Schwartzmiller in prison, was arrested in May. Police went to the house to talk to Schwartzmiller about a traffic accident and became suspicious of Everts, who answered the door. He was arrested on an outstanding warrant for a parole violation in Oregon.

In his testimony, Dillon said that Everts was eager to help police make their case against Schwartzmiller and during interviews also confessed to sexually abusing three boys.

Dillon said that Everts admitted to molesting the 3-year-old son of a friend of Schwartzmiller's when he was asked to babysit the boy.

Everts befriended two older boys, including the one who testified Wednesday, by buying them gifts, playing videogames with them and giving them money, Dillon said. One of the alleged victims even requested that Everts become his godfather.

Everts began pressuring one of the children to engage in sex acts with him and to pose for nude and sexually explicit photographs.

Everts, sporting a buzz cut and thick glasses, rarely looked at the boy. The courtroom was empty for much of the proceeding and after the hearing Everts declined to make any statements. He faces a life sentence, if convicted.

While he has offered to help prosecutors build a case against his former roommate, Fein said he wouldn't be offering a plea bargain for a lighter sentence.

"There won't be any deals," said Fein, a deputy district attorney.

Everts attorney, David Hultgren, said Everts wasn't asking for much.

"He would have taken 50 years to life," Hultgren said. "He was cooperative with the police from the very beginning. We were hoping to work something out."

Schwartzmiller, 63, pleaded not guilty last month to molesting two boys. He is charged with one count of aggravated sexual assault on a child under 14 and six counts of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 14, with each count alleging multiple victims. Schwartzmiller, who has a preliminary hearing scheduled for next month, faces life in prison if convicted.

Tag: Dean Arthur Schwartzmiller

Ex-High School Coach Pleads Guilty In Sex Case

2005-10-19T19:05:00.000-04:00

DENVER -- A former teacher and basketball coach at a Catholic high school in Denver pleaded guilty Tuesday to sexually assaulting a female player.

Craig DeBaise, 43, had been charged with seven counts of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust and was accused of sexually assaulting two female players at Machebeuf High School, but reached a plea bargain with prosecutors.

DeBaise, instead, pleaded guilty to only one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust.

Prosecutors accused DeBiase of having sex with a 16-year-old girl on a summer basketball team multiple times in 1999. They also said he had sex with a 17-year-old girl in 2000.

DeBaise will be sentence on Dec. 20 and faces two years to life in prison, but also could be put on probation as part of his sentence.

Man Accused In Ottumwa Kidnapping Gets Higher Bond

2005-10-19T11:48:00.000-04:00

DES MOINES, Iowa -- A judge has raised the bond for a man who is accused of kidnapping an Ottumwa girl.

Brendan Stanley is charged with kidnapping 9-year-old Gloria Lopez. The judge decided to up his bond to $500,000 cash only.

Authorities said Stanley took Lopez from a bus stop in Ottumwa Oct. 7, sparking a statewide Amber Alert.

Lopez and Stanley were later found in Van Buren County. Officers said they found them in a tent.

Sexual Predator Attacked By Eight Men

2005-10-19T11:44:00.000-04:00

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Police said a sexual predator in Jacksonville was attacked Saturday night by eight men who claimed he tried to grab a 12-year-old child on the street.

Officials said the men confronted John Childers, 46, and beat him with their fists. Police found Childers on the ground in front of the Evergreen Avenue half-way house where he lived and called rescue.

Childers had bruises on his head and face, but was not hospitalized.

Witnesses told police that eight men arrived in a 1993 Lincoln Continental and another vehicle, beat Childers, then left. The witness said the men had come around looking for Childers before.

Childers has been convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a child under 16. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said he had registered as a sex offender at the halfway house address.

Trail Turns Cold For Murder Suspect Melvin Keeling

2005-10-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

LOVELAND PARK, Ohio (AP) -- The yard at the home where Melvin Keeling lived now looks like a coarsely cut hayfield.

The house has been empty since the woman he was living with came for the furniture.

Yellow crime tape still encircles the nearby home of the teenage girl Keeling is accused of shooting to death a month ago, before allegedly driving to Indiana and killing two store clerks.

After an initial flurry of reported sightings in the Cincinnati area and in Gary, Ind., Keeling's trail has turned cold.

"He could have gone underground in Gary, and if he's hanging with the right people, nobody's going to say anything," Commander Jerome Krebes of the Gary Police Department said Monday.

At one time, Keeling had family and friends in the Gary area, but police don't know if any remain there, Krebes said.

The FBI has offered a $25,000 reward for help finding Keeling.

The Family Express company, which owns the Indiana store where the two women were slain, has posted $10,000.

Gus Olympidis, president and CEO of Valparaiso-based Family Express, said he hoped the money would "stimulate someone who otherwise would not be motivated" to talk.

Krebes said that probably won't help get Keeling. In his more than 32 years with the department, "I doubt if three or four rewards have been collected," he said.

Keeling, 43, is suspected of shooting 13-year-old Katelind Caudill in her grandmother's home in suburban Cincinnati as she got ready for school Sept. 19.

Just days before that, Katelind's best friend -- a daughter of Keeling's live-in girlfriend -- told Katelind that Keeling had been molesting her the past three years and Katelind confronted him, calling him a pedophile, according to a sheriff's department affidavit.

About four hours after Katelind was shot, two women were shot and killed at a convenience store in Remington, Ind., about a four-hour drive from Keeling's home.

The next morning, Keeling's van was found another 65 miles up Interstate 65, near a residential area of Gary.
Police used cadaver dogs to search a wooded area nearby in case Keeling -- who was known to have repurchased a .40-caliber Glock handgun from a Cincinnati pawn shop -- had shot himself.

"We thought maybe that would be a possibility," Krebes said. All that was found was some of Keeling's identification papers, police said.

"That day and the next day, we had officers going door to door within six blocks of the abandoned van," Krebes said. "For a week or 10 days, we got a lot of (reported) sightings, but we haven't heard anything since. We've had no report in three weeks."

Some of the initial sightings had Keeling on opposite ends of the city at the same time, Krebes said.
Cincinnati police also received reports of alleged sightings.

The television program "America's Most Wanted" broadcast a segment on Keeling, but the FBI has not included him on its most-wanted list.

"We're still looking for him. We're responding to tips," said Mike Brooks, spokesman for the FBI office in Cincinnati. "We've got some information, but nothing we can talk about because we could possibly tip him off."
Krebes said it would not be hard for someone like Keeling to disappear in the Chicago-Gary metropolitan area.
"There's nothing that would be remarkable about him," Krebes said. "He's just an average Joe."

Dennis Caudill, Katelind's grandfather, said it is heartbreaking that there has been no sign of Keeling.

"It seems like he done it and got away with it," Caudill said.

The FBI told him the last time he talked to an agent about a week and a half ago that investigators thought Keeling went into Chicago.

"I was hoping they'd catch him, because if he ain't got more respect than to kill a little girl and those two women trying to make a living, he's going to kill somebody else."

Family Express is creating a memorial to its two employees.

The chain and its suppliers are helping support the families of Lisa Kendall, 29, of Rensselaer, Ind., who left two children, and Kendora Furr, 38, of Remington, who left three, Olympidis said.

"They are typically reported as two clerks in a convenience store in obscure Indiana," Olympidis said. "They were extraordinary individuals. The average person would have no idea how many lives have been touched by these individuals."

Death sentence talk being renewed in Iowa

2005-10-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

DES MOINES — The question of whether to reinstate the death penalty in Iowa is bubbling to the surface after months in the background.

Next week, a legislative committee will convene to look at penalties and sentencing for sex offenders. Several members of the panel, including Sen. Larry McKibben, R-Marshalltown, were among the Republicans who sought to reinstate the death penalty this spring in the wake of the kidnapping and murder of Jetseta Gage, a 10-year-old Cedar Rapids girl.

Also fueling the debate was the news last week that an Iowan is heading for death row for the first time since the early 1960s. A federal judge issued the sentence to convicted murderer Dustin Honken following the recommendation of a Sioux City jury. Federal courts allow for the death penalty, even in places where it is banned for state cases.

Honken’s accomplice, Angela Johnson, has also been recommended for the death penalty and awaits sentencing. Honken would be executed in Indiana.

McKibben plans a yearlong campaign for the death penalty, which he thinks will help his party reclaim control of the Senate after a year with a 25-25 tie.

“I intend to campaign very hard on the issue. I’m not up for re-election and I can assure you I know which seats are key to giving us enough votes,” he said.

Keith Kreiman, D-Bloomfield, co-chairman of the legislative committee and a death penalty opponent, said he does not think Republicans will get far by focusing on the death penalty.

“I think what’s more important is the total safety of our communities and our children,” he said.
This spring, McKibben proposed giving juries the option of capital punishment in cases in which a child has been kidnapped, raped and murdered. The idea was stymied by Senate Democrats who accused Republicans of grandstanding.

McKibben said he is happy to hear about the death sentence for Honken.
“One, it’s a deterrent and, two, it’s justice,” he said.

Kreiman said he opposes the federal death penalty for the same reason he opposes a state death penalty, because he believes only God can decide when a life ends.

“I have more concerns as a Christian than as a lawyer or a state senator,” he said.

Other opponents of the death penalty are troubled to see an Iowan go to Death Row, but they are even more troubled by the intensifying campaign for a state death penalty.

Ben Stone, executive director of the Iowa Civil Liberties Union, said death penalty backers are exploiting high-profile crimes.

“There are a lot of politicians who will take the current environment and maximize the political gains that can be made,” he added.

He expects the debate to culminate in the 2006 election for governor and three quarters of the legislative seats.

Two men charged with molestation after two girls found safe

2005-10-18T16:23:00.000-04:00

BISMARCK, N.D. - Two illegal immigrants have been charged here with molesting two 13-year-old Belcourt girls, who were missing for nearly three days.

Julio Alvarez, 21, and Carlos Martinez, 30, both Mexican nationals, were charged on Monday with gross sexual imposition in South Central District Court, Burleigh County prosecutor Brandi Sasse Russell said.
The men are being held without bond in the Burleigh County jail, Russell said.

The two girls were found uninjured in Bismarck on Sunday. Their disappearance prompted an Amber Alert, a way for authorities to quickly inform the public through the media that a child is missing and might be in danger.

The teens were last seen at Bismarck's Kirkwood Mall about 6 p.m. Thursday, talking to two men.
Authorities said Saturday that the men might have lured the girls to the mall over the Internet, but they said Monday they had discounted the Internet theory.

"It's looking more like a chance meeting - and went from there," Russell said. "We have evidence that they had sex with these girls."

The men had been working on a new Wal-Mart under construction in south Bismarck, Russell said. The men had been staying in a local motel.

The girls were found in a vehicle on Sunday afternoon, Russell said.
Russell said the men also were being investigated by immigration officials. Russell said Martinez does not speak English.

The Class AA felony charge carries a maximum punishment of life in prison and a $10,000 fine, Russell said.
One of the girls has been released to her parents, and the other is being held in a juvenile detention center in Mandan, for a reason police would not discuss. Police said both girls face runaway charges.

Substitute Teacher Allegedly Molesting Children

2005-10-16T09:16:00.000-04:00

Students Were From Elementary Schools In Naperville, Downers Grove.

WHEATON, Illinois. -- Authorities say a substitute teacher facing trial for sexually abusing one of his students in northwestern Indiana has been charged with molesting 13 other children at elementary schools in Naperville and Downers Grove.

Brett Zagorac, 22, was held without bail Saturday in Lake County (Indiana) Jail, pending an appearance in DuPage County Circuit Court.

Zagorac is charged in Illinois with 26 misdemeanor counts of criminal sexual abuse and battery.

He is accused of inappropriately touching or rubbing the backs of nine students at elementary schools in Naperville and four pupils at a school in Downers Grove.

Child Molester Arrested: Jose Manuel Diaz

2005-10-15T18:15:00.000-04:00

He is accused of molesting a child in Texas, but he was arrested in Middle Tennessee.

Police say Jose Manuel Diaz, 43, is an illegal immigrant who went by the name Roberto Nunez while working as a painter.

Diaz has been indicted on several charges in San Antonio related to the abuse of a child over a period of years. He is being held without bond as a fugitive.

*************************************************************************************

Teacher takes plea in child abuse case

VANCOUVER -- A 54-year-old man on Thursday pleaded no contest to six counts of communicating with a minor for immoral purposes while a teacher in the Battle Ground School District.

Thomas H. Moody entered the plea in Clark County Superior Court after striking a plea agreement that reduced the 10 counts of first-degree child molestation he had been facing to the six gross misdemeanors.
Each of the six counts carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail, a $5,000 fine and two years of probation.

Moody's plea acknowledges that there is sufficient evidence that a jury could find him guilty at trial. The case had been set for trial Oct. 31.

Moody, who formerly taught at Captain Strong Elementary, earlier surrendered his teacher certificate and under the plea arrangement, agreed not to teach again.

Deputy Prosecutor Wendy Harmon Hanson recommended Moody serve 60 days in confinement. Moody also will register as a sex offender for 10 years, undergo a sexual-deviancy evaluation and pay fees and court costs.

He is scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Roger A. Bennett on Feb. 2. He remains out of custody on his own recognizance.

Moody was accused last year of fondling and inappropriately touching 10 girls as far back as 1998 when he was a teacher at Captain Strong and Maple Grove Primary.

Ben Fawley says: "Accidental"

2005-10-15T11:00:00.000-04:00

"We have no doubt he killed her now," said one law-enforcement source close to the case.

But investigators on the Richmond Police Department's multiagency task force investigating her death are not prepared to concede that Behl's death was accidental.

"Some of it's true and some of it's" not, said another law-enforcement source close to the case. "We're in the process now of trying to sort all of that out."

See: Suspect: Behl death was an accident

Tags: Taylor Behl, Ben Fawley

2005-10-12T10:07:00.000-04:00

Oprah rewards women who helped nab man.

FARGO, N.D. — Two friends who identified a convicted sex offender profiled on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" received $50,000 checks for their part in capturing the fugitive from Indiana.

The arrest of William C. Davis, 33, came just days after Winfrey announced a campaign to track down sex offenders. Another fugitive who was wanted in Ohio also has been arrested since the broadcast, officials said.

Karie Miller, of Fargo, and Jean Rosenthal, of Moorhead, Minn., held hands Tuesday while walking onto the set of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to a standing ovation by the audience.

Miller tipped off FBI agents last week, reporting that Davis lived above her family in a north Fargo apartment. Davis was arrested in Fargo on Thursday, two days after Winfrey broadcast his face and offered $100,000 for information leading to his capture.

"This is why I say you were so courageous, because you know what courage is," Winfrey told the women. "It's being scared but doing it anyway."

Rosenthal also saw Winfrey's Oct. 4 show on fugitives accused of preying on children when she recognized the profile of a man she knew as Mark Allen Davis. After Miller checked the profile, she called FBI agents in Minneapolis to turn in the neighbor of her friend.

Authorities wanted Davis, of Wadesville, Ind., on felony charges of molesting three Indiana boys and failing to register as a sex offender.

Davis, who was convicted of child molestation in 1992, used an Indiana birth certificate and driver's license to obtain a North Dakota license in his brother's name.

Another accused sex offender, Niles Scott, was arrested in Belize after a woman recognized him on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and contacted local authorities, according to an FBI statement posted on Winfrey's Web site.

Scott, 50, was wanted in the sexual assault of a 13-year-old girl, and he has been returned to Cleveland to face charges, the FBI said.

"The FBI is very thankful to the Oprah Winfrey show and the general public for helping us catch this dangerous fugitive," said Cleveland FBI agent Scott Wilson.

___

On the Net: The Oprah Winfrey Show: http://www.oprah.com

Tag: Oprah

2005-10-12T09:00:00.000-04:00

California: Pismo Beach men arrested on drug possession and child molestation allegations.

Suspects allegedly took pornographic pictures of two teens.

A Pismo Beach motel manager and his assistant manager are in County Jail today after being arrested on suspicion of drug possession, child molestation and other charges.

Edward Gordon Wilderman, 45, and Garrett Frank Nelson, 19, were arrested Saturday as the result of a six-month investigation into alleged illegal activities at the Ocean Breeze Inn, according to Detective Jim English of the Pismo Beach Police Department.

The Pismo Beach men are accused of furnishing methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy and hallucinogenic mushrooms to two San Luis Obispo teenagers, English said.

They also face charges of taking pornographic pictures of the minors and engaging in oral sex with them, police the detective said. One youth is 15 years old, the other 16.

Wilderman and Nelson are being held at the County Jail in lieu of posting $60,000 bail each.

2005-10-11T19:32:00.000-04:00

National Sex Offender Registry

Arkansas joins National Sex-Offender Registry

Oklahoma added to offender registry

Georgia participating in National Sex Offender Registry

Department of Justice links South Carolina and Guam to National Sex Offender Public Registry Web site

2005-10-11T19:28:00.000-04:00

Carmel Fire-Fighter Arrested On Child-Molestation Charges

An eight-year veteran of the Carmel Fire Department is now facing four felony charges of child-molestation.

Michael R. Musselman, a 33-year-old resident of Noblesville, turned himself in to authorities at the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office today after a warrant for his arrest was issued last Friday.

Musselman is being held on a $140,000 bond.

Authorities say that they have no reason to believe that any of the reported allegation occurred during the course of his employment.

2005-10-11T18:44:00.000-04:00

Ben Fawley a Sexual Predator?

So was Ben Fawley a Sexual Predator?

Do you know who are the Sex Offender/Predators in and around your neighborhood at Virginia Commonwealth University?

What happened to Taylor Behl?

Tag: Taylor Behl

2005-10-11T18:17:00.000-04:00

Sex offenders listed on Website in Vanderburgh County, Indiana

In the days before the Internet, sex offenders could live in near anonymity. Police kept track of their whereabouts and locked them up if they moved without giving notice, but neighbors had no clue they were living among a child molester or rapist.

A sex offender could blend into suburbia, work a 9-to-5 job and date without anyone knowing his past. The roughly 385 sex offenders registered in Vanderburgh County don’t have that luxury anymore.

Their pictures, home address and criminal history are posted on www.vanderburghsheriff.com - the department’s sex offender registry. The Web site has received more than 22,000 hits since it was launched April 28, an average of 200 a day. And people aren’t just going online. They also are calling Cpl. Tom Wedding, who manages the Web site.

Wedding has received tips from convicted criminals, business owners and concerned parents. Some parents have called to ask about contractors they have hired to work on their homes while their children are home alone, Wedding said. Landlords are also quick to pick up the phone when a sex offender moves. But the real frenzy comes when a kidnapping makes national news.

When a child was abducted in Florida earlier this summer and all the major cable news stations ran the story, the tips poured in, Wedding said. "That (scares) a lot of people," he said. Some of the sex offenders have complained about being on the Internet. "That tells us that it’s working," Wedding said. The Web site allows users to create a map of their neighborhood. Stars mark the location of each sex offender. Users can search by address, name or zip code. Each profile lists the type of crime, prison sentence and age of the victim. So far, tips from callers have led to 12 arrests.

"It has exceeded our expectations," Chief Deputy Sheriff Eric Williams said.

Recent legislation in Indiana, IC 5-2-12, has transferred jurisdiction and the responsibility for the monitoring and maintenance of the local Sex Offender Registry to each county within the State of Indiana and to each county sheriff. With those changes and enhancements of this legislation, Sex Offenders are now required to register with the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office at least once a year, and sex offenders are further required to update with the Sheriff's Office any changes of residency, employment and place of study or vocation. Failure of the Sex Offender to comply with this recent legislation or failure to provide notifications of changes or updates required under Indiana Law, IC 5-2-12, is a Class D felony and the second offense is a Class C felony, if the registered sex has a prior unrelated offense. These offenses will be investigated by the Vanderburgh County Sheriff's Office and may result in criminal charges being filed against the offender by the Vanderburgh Prosecutor's Office.

2005-10-11T15:00:00.000-04:00

NATIONAL SEX OFFENDER PUBLIC REGISTRY and SEX OFFENDER REGISTRIES FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL STATE

News,Discussion,Resources For Victims and Survivors of Sexual Child Abuse..True Crime..Sexual Assault..Sex Offenders..Perpetrators..Sexual Predators..Pedophiles..Sex Offenses Crime News.

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