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2001 Updates

August 8, 2001 Customers targeted in major child porn case.

MSNBC STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS:
SUBSCRIBERS TO a child porn Web site connected to a Texas couple are among those expected to be indicted following a two-year probe by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other federal authorities, officials said. A news conference in Washington to announce the indictments was scheduled for 11:30 a.m. ET Wednesday.

A federal judge on Monday sentenced Thomas Reedy, 37, to life in prison and his 32-year-old wife, Janice, to 14 years in prison. The Fort Worth couple was convicted last year on charges including sexual exploitation of minors and distribution of child pornography.

Internet Underground: The dark side of the online world

The Reedy's home-based company, Landslide Inc., provided a credit card verification service that admitted customers into Web sites containing graphic pictures and videos of children engaging in sex acts with adults and with each other, the government said.

Landslide charged customers $29.95 per month for access and netted more than $1 million between 1997 and 1999, the government said.
The Web site had about 300,000 subscribers around the world. Authorities tracked down some of them using electronic and credit card information gathered in an investigation conducted by the postal inspection service, U.S. Customs Service, the FBI and the Dallas Police Department. It is illegal to possess child pornography.

Kenny Smith, a U.S. postal inspector, told NBC News that the aggressive prosecution is intended to "send a message to those who would deal in child porn or in the exploitation of children that the government is going to seriously come after them and seek to put them away for a very, very long time."

The porn sites were run by Web masters in Russia and Indonesia; warrants have been issued for their arrest. For a variety of reasons, U.S. authorities face major difficulties in attempting to prosecute overseas pornographers.

In some countries, authorities don't view child pornography as a serious crime; in others, the use of minors in sexually explicit photos and videotapes is not illegal.

Didi Widayadi, a spokesman for the Indonesian National Police, told the Associated Press on Wednesday that even as they search for the pornographers that worked with the Reedys, authorities are trying to determine whether they can be prosecuted because Indonesia has no law outlawing Internet child pornography.

"We are still studying the case, especially its legal and procedural aspects," said Widayadi. "We do not yet have regulations governing this matter."

MSNBC.com's Mike Brunker, NBC's Pete Williams and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

August 8, 2001 EU ruling will help paedophiles.

By Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent
Paedophiles will be free to hunt vulnerable victims on the internet if a new European directive is passed, it was revealed today.

Detectives tracking child abusers will see their powers "completely emasculated" if the directive is passed, it was claimed. The directive is aimed at protecting the individual freedom of computer users.

Click here for full story.

August 8, 2001 Federal authorities crack down on child porn.

WASHINGTON (AP) - One hundred people have been arrested as part of an undercover sting investigation into the largest known commercial child pornography business ever uncovered, federal officials said Wednesday.

The two-year investigation began with Landslide Productions Inc., a Fort Worth, Texas, company owned by Thomas and Janice Reedy. Authorities said the company was at the center of an international child pornography business that distributed lewd pictures of children having sex to subscribers over the Internet.

The Reedys were charged in an 89-count federal indictment with conspiracy to distribute and possession of child pornography.

Click here for full story.

July 30, 2001 Child sex offender can live near day-care.

Please feel free to contact your legislatures about these issues. If we all speak up, we can have a strong voice together. SOC-UM

Chicago Daily Herald

By Bob Susnjara Daily Herald Staff Writer

A judge ruled Monday that Ronald C. Schroff did not violate a state law prohibiting convicted sex offenders from living within 500 feet of a school, park or day-care center, and he can remain in his Gurnee home.

Lake County Circuit Judge Raymond McKoski found Schroff actually had become the owner of a house on Country Club Drive well before the law went into effect July 7, 2000. Prosecutors had argued otherwise.

Schroff paid a $6,000 non-refundable deposit on the house, with an option to lease, on Sept. 28, 1999, which the judge said constituted ownership.

McKoski said Schroff could not have known the law would come into existence when the home was purchased within 500 feet of a day-care operation on Sunset Avenue in Waukegan, on Gurnee's east border.

Click here for full story.

July 30, 2001 FBI Using High-Tech Gadgets.

FBI Using High-Tech Gadgets
By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - By bugging a keyboard or using special software, FBI agents can remotely capture a computer user's every keystroke. With a black box, they can intercept e-mail from miles away.

In a van parked outside, they secretly can recreate the pictures on a computer screen from its electromagnetic energy.

The legal limits for these new investigative tools will get a test Monday when a federal court in New Jersey examines a mob case in which agents, with out a wiretap order, recorded a suspect's computer keystrokes.

Privacy experts are watching the case of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. with great interest because it could bring major changes to investigative tactics in the online age.

``It's the idea of secret government surveillance technology being installed with very little oversight or accountability,'' David Sobel of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center said. `It gets about as close to the common perception of Big Brother as anything I could really imagine.''

Click here for full story.

July 28, 2001 Daughters sued police chief for not pursuing father who molested them.

Hayden v. Grayson CV-93-112-JD 03/13/97

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
Jessica L. Hayden, et al. v. Civil No. 93-112-JD

Richard Grayson

O R D E R
The plaintiffs, Jessica L. Hayden, Nicole C. Merrill, and SOC-UM M. Rhoads, brought this action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the defendant, Richard Grayson, the former police chief of Lisbon, New Hampshire. The plaintiffs allege that the defendant violated their right to equal protection by failing to investigate and arrest their sexually abusive father, Hervey Gagnon. Before the court is the defendant's motion for summary judgment (document no. 41).

Background 1
In 1983, the plaintiffs notified their mother, Sylvia Kinne, that Gagnon had sexually abused them on numerous occasions. 2 In response, Kinne excluded Gagnon from the family home and subsequently divorced him. The plaintiffs then reported the abuse to the defendant, who later informed the plaintiffs that he refused to arrest Gagnon because the county attorney would not prosecute the case. In fact, the defendant had not spoken with the county attorney about the case.

In 1990, after receiving information that the defendant had failed to pursue other claims of domestic sexual abuse, the plaintiffs contacted the county attorney directly. At that time, the county attorney prosecuted Gagnon, who entered a plea bargain and was sentenced.

The plaintiffs do not allege that Gagnon sexually abused them after their initial complaint to the defendant in 1983, but instead assert that Gagnon continued to live in Lisbon and "between 1983 and 1990, harassed the Plaintiffs, causing them fear, embarrassment, and mental anguish." Amended Complaint at ¶ 17. They further claim that because of the defendant's actions "Plaintiffs have suffered and continue to suffer permanent grave emotional and psychological injuries requiring the expenditure of large sums of money for care and treatment." Id. at ¶ 31.

Subsequently, the plaintiffs brought this action alleging, inter alia , that the defendant violated their federal right to equal protection by failing to pursue their original complaint against Gagnon. 3 The defendant has moved for summary judgment on the plaintiffs' federal equal protection claim, asserting that the plaintiffs have failed to establish the necessary elements of such a claim.

Discussion
The role of summary judgment is "to pierce the boilerplate of the pleadings and assay the parties' proof in order to determine whether trial is actually required." Snow v. Harnischfeger Corp. , 12 F.3d 1154, 1157 (1st Cir. 1993) (quoting Wynne v. Tufts Univ. Sch. of Medicine , 976 F.2d 791, 794 (1st Cir. 1992)). The court may only grant a motion for summary judgment where the "pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(c). The party seeking summary judgment bears the initial burden of establishing the lack of a genuine issue of material fact. See Celotex Corp. v. Catrett , 477 U.S. 317, 323 (1986); Quintero de Quintero v.

July 28, 2001 Man sentenced for molesting daughters.

By Bill Hetherman

EL MONTE A man once investigated by Fontana police on suspicion of child molestation was sentenced to four years in prison Thursday for molesting his daughters in the 1970s and 1980s.

Ralph Sandoval, 57, of El Monte was accused of molesting his four daughters from 1973 to 1983 but pleaded guilty to two felony counts involving two girls in a plea agreement.

After suppressing some of the incidents for close to 30 years, some of Sandoval's daughters elected to come forward and brought about his Jan. 19 arrest.

Sandoval has four daughters and a son from his first marriage, which ended in divorce about 20 years ago. He has four more children by his second wife, from whom he also is divorced. Those children range in age from 3 to 12.

Police in Fontana, where Sandoval lived with his second wife, investigated whether he molested members of his second family, but the case was rejected by the San Bernardino County District Attorney's Office.

The daughters who came forward said they did so because they worried Sandoval might also be molesting his four children from his second marriage.

Since entering his plea Feb. 15, Sandoval has undergone psychological examinations in state prison, where doctors recommended against granting probation.

Rio Hondo Court Judge Abraham A. Khan noted the doctors' findings in handing down a sentence short of the eight-year maximum, but denying Sandoval probation. Khan said he worried about the safety of Sandoval's grandchildren.

"The defendant through his conduct literally destroyed the lives of the children affected," Khan said. "The conduct may have gone on up to as recently as one-and-a-half years ago."

Sandoval admitted molesting the daughters now grown women in their early 30s and apologized.

July 28, 2001 Mayor of Waterbury, Conn., Arrested.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) - Waterbury Mayor Philip Giordano, who lost the U.S. Senate race to Sen. Joseph Lieberman last year, was arrested Thursday on federal sex charges involving a minor.

Giordano, 38, was charged with using an interstate facility to entice a minor to engage in sexual activity, and with conspiracy to commit that act.

FBI Special Agent Michael Wolf said there were multiple victims under age 16, but he added that the charges involved only one person. Investigators would not provide any other details.

If convicted, the Republican mayor of the state's fifth-largest city could be sentenced to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

FBI agents were searching Giordano's office Thursday morning and interviewing City Hall employees. Repeated calls to the mayor's office and to his spokesman were not returned.

Giordano, who is married and has three children, was arraigned in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport on Thursday and ordered held without bail. He was scheduled to return to court on Tuesday.

The arrest comes as Waterbury grapples with a state takeover of its finances and an estimated $60 million deficit. State overseers earlier this year approved a budget that includes a 30 percent property tax increase and severe cuts in city programs.

Giordano, who was first elected mayor in 1995, made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate last year against Lieberman, who sought for re-election while running for vice president.

Giordano announced last week he would not seek a fourth two-year term.

July 23, 2001 Colorado Releases Sex Offenders After Court Ruling.

DENVER (Reuters) -- Dozens of Colorado sex offenders, ranging from convicted rapists to child molesters, were given $100 and released from prison this week after the state's high Court ruled they were mistakenly held for parole violations, officials said on Wednesday.

``We released 43 yesterday and we're planning to release the rest today, for a total of 71," said Heidi Hayes, spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Corrections.

In June, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled state legislators enacted confusing laws in the 1990s, eliminating or curtailing parole supervision for sex offenders who committed crimes between 1993 and 1998.

``If there's no parole, then there's no parole violation," Hayes said.

Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar asked the high court to reconsider, but on Monday they refused without comment, prompting this week's release.

Since 1998, Colorado requires lifetime supervision of sex offenders.

Click here for full story.

July 23, 2001 Man arrested 40 years after alleged crime.

A 77-year-old Sacramento man has been arrested and jailed after being accused of sexual crimes committed more than 40 years ago.

Manuel Saetes, a former foster father, day care operator and sports coach, is accused of molesting at least six children in his care.

The crimes reach back as far as 1959 and as recently as 1971. And there could be even more victims.

Sheriff's child abuse detectives have arrested Saetes on 11 counts of child molestation. He is being held in the Sacramento County main jail on $1 million bail.

Detectives believe that Saetes was responsible for molesting at least six victims over a 12-year period.

Click here for full story.

July 23, 2001 Online Sexual Solicitation: Study examines risks posed.

A study examines the risks posed to young people who use the internet and discover sexually explicit material. In a survey of 1501 youth, it is reported that "nineteen percent of youth who used the internet regularly were the targets of unwanted sexual solicitation in the last year." The study encourages "health care professionals, educators, and parents" to urge young people to discuss and report such incidents.

(Reading: "Risk Factors for and Impact of Online Sexual Solicitation of Youth," Journal of the American Medical Assn., 6/20/01, pp. 3011-3014, abstract http://jama.ama-assn.org/issues/v285n23/abs/jbr10028.html)

July 19, 2001 Utah man claims free expression in sodomy case.

SALT LAKE CITY - Arguing that an anti-sodomy law violates his right of free expression, a man charged for having oral sex with a 16-year-old girl is fighting prosecution.

He is the first person to be charged under Utah's anti-sodomy laws since 1990, and his may be the first consensual sodomy case in more than 15 years. A hearing was scheduled for next week.
Derrick Sundquist was 19 when he was charged last year with misdemeanor sodomy.

In Utah, a 16-year-old may have consensual sex with a person who is no more than four years older.

Sodomy was outlawed in Utah even for married couples until 1977, when the law was changed to apply only to unmarried people. It is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

If the girl was younger than 16 or Sundquist was older than 20, he could have faced felony charges of sodomy of a child, which are more common and not in dispute, said attorney Brian Barnard, who has filed a brief supporting Sundquist on behalf of the Utah Civil Rights and Liberties Foundation.

Click here for full story.

July 19, 2001 Rockland man charged with rapes of 5 south shore kids.

The BostonHerald

By Franci Richardson

Thursday, July 19, 2001

A 38-year-old Rockland man has been indicted on multiple charges of raping five children in three South Shore communities over the past decade, prosecutors said yesterday.

``There's 25 counts against someone (molesting) children and I would say this is significant,'' said Rockland police detective Stephen Sammon of the tri-town case against Shawn P. Damon.

Police said Damon is charged with aggravated rape of five children under the age of 14 in Plymouth, Carver, and Rockland from July 1991 through March 2001. Police said the victims were boys and girls, but would not specify how many were male and how many female. Damon was indicted Monday by a Plymouth County grand jury on 16 counts of rape of a child, with use of force. He was also charged with nine counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14, according to Janet McDermott, spokeswoman for the Plymouth County District Attorney's Office.

Sammon said the investigation began shortly after police received information from the district attorney's office and the Department of Social Services. ``They had allegations and certain evidence and then we followed up on that,'' said Sammon, who refused to elaborate.

Carver and Plymouth police have participated in the investigation.

Damon has been held at the Plymouth County House of Correction since his April arrest, she said. An arraignment at Brockton Superior Court will likely be scheduled by the end of the week.

Sammon said he did not know whether more victims would come forward with allegations.

``It's hard to say,'' he said.

July 19, 2001 Former Choirboy sues Dioces in sex abuse.

THE DAILY NEWS (New York)

BY RALPH R. ORTEGA

A Queens man has filed a sex abuse suit against the Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, 22 years after he says he was sexually molested by a priest while serving as an 8-year-old choirboy.

Daniel Dugo, 30, of Bayside, says he was recruited into the choir of his boyhood parish, St. Cecilia's Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, by then-parish priest the Rev. Patrick Sexton.

Dugo charges that Sexton molested him at least seven times in the parish rectory, and once in a car.

The civil suit was filed Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court and announced by Dugo in a Manhattan press conference. It also names St. Cecilia's and the Archdiocese of New York, which also employed Sexton as a music teacher for several years without knowing that he was a priest, according to officials.

"We didn't know he was a priest. He wasn't serving as a priest. He came to us as a music teacher," said archdiocese spokesman Joe Zwilling.

Dugo is acting as his own lawyer in the lawsuit. He conceded that he has been told by lawyers that his case is all but impossible to prosecute because, after 22 years, the statute of limitations on the charges has expired.

But Dugo, now a home improvement contractor, is undeterred. He said he rejected a settlement offer of $15,000 from the Diocese of Brooklyn to pay for past and future counseling expenses and depression medication Dugo said he needed to deal with memories of the molestation.

Dugo said he spurned the offer as "hush money" because it contained a confidentiality clause that would have kept him from speaking publicly about the allegations.

"Even though lawyers have already told me I probably won't win, I feel I want to do it anyway . . . to give me some type of closure," said Dugo, who said he would leave it to a jury to decide how much he should be awarded should he win in court.

Dugo said he considered all priests "perverts" for years, and never understood why, until repressed memories of the alleged molestation were rekindled in 1999. They resurfaced, he said, as he watched a TV show about a woman who had accused her father of sexual abuse.

Diocese of Brooklyn spokesman Frank DeRosa said Sexton, 51, who took a leave of absence from his duties as a priest in 1990, has denied the charges filed by Dugo. Zwilling said Sexton resigned from teaching at two Westchester schools in the archdiocese over a year ago.

Diocesan officials said Sexton reportedly lived in Bayside after he left St. Cecilia's. Sexton could not be reached for comment.

July 19, 2001 Group assail web sites for 'boy lovers'.

Based in Montreal: Do not violate Criminal Code child porn laws

Tom Blackwell, National Post

Child advocacy groups are pushing the Canadian branch of MCI/WorldCom, one of the world's biggest Internet companies, to close down a group of Montreal-based Web sites that offer advice, pictures and discussion groups for men who "love boys." Most Internet pages devoted to child pornography or its adherents are based outside of North America in such places as Eastern Europe or Africa where the laws or enforcement in the area are lax, said Mark Hecht, an Ottawa lawyer and co-founder of the group Beyond Borders, which fights sexual exploitation of children.

Mr. Hecht said he was very upset to discover sites devoted to pedophilia hosted by Canadian Internet service providers. "Pedophiles are highly fixated individuals who are constantly trying to have sex with children," said Ros Prober, another founder of the organization. "If they find a weak link, they will use it mercilessly, which is why companies have to constantly be on alert for these Web sites and take action immediately." A U.S.-based child advocate says the sites ended up in Canada after authorities forced them out of the United States.

But WorldCom Canada Ltd. says Ontario police have told the company the sites for boy lovers are not illegal, and the company is loathe to pass judgment on a lawful operation. The sites are actually hosted by another company, Epifora Inc., but Epifora buys access to the Internet from WorldCom. "We don't approve or condone the content but ... it isn't for me to play judge, jury and advocate," said Tal Bevan, president of WorldCom Canada. "Where do I draw the line next time? If you were a non-smoker and I was hosting a smoking site and you had an issue because of the impact on cancer, I would be faced with the same thing."

Click here for full story.

July 19, 2001 Texas Cops Probe Padlocked Girl Case.

HUTCHINS, Texas (AP) - A 15-year-old girl was kept padlocked in her bedroom in what her mother said was an effort to combat an eating disorder.

Just a month ago, police in the same small town of 2,800 found a malnourished 8-year-old girl who had been locked in a closet for several months. Her parents were arrested on child abuse charges.

No charges had been filed as of Tuesday in the latest case, but authorities were investigating. Investigators said the two cases appeared unrelated.

The 15-year-old girl's mother said her daughter had an eating disorder and was locked in her 10-by-10-foot room at night after meals to prevent her making herself vomit, Police Chief G.E. Griffin said.

The girl told police she escaped from her family's isolated, 65-acre property Saturday and sought refuge with neighbors, who turned her over to authorities Sunday.

An affidavit by the state Child Protective Services agency said workers at the hospital where she was taken found no signs of an eating disorder. The agency said she weighed 96 pounds; she was later released from the hospital.

Griffin said the family was deeply religious and rarely sought medical treatment. They belong to a group called Believer's Fellowship, which encourages its followers to have many children, he said. The girl's mother told police she has 11 other children, ages 2 to 18.

The family of the 8-year-old girl did not attend the Believer's Fellowship church.

July 19, 2001 Jurors convict man of torture deaths of two of his children.

The Sacramento Bee

SAN FERNANDO, Calif. -- Jurors on Tuesday convicted a man of murder in the torture deaths of his 2-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son, whose broken bodies were found buried in the Angeles National Forest.

The Superior Court jury found Marco Barrera of Pacoima guilty of first-degree murder and the special circumstance allegations of torture and multiple murder. That makes the 38-year-old Barrera eligible for the death penalty.

The penalty phase of Barrera's trial begins Monday. He remains jailed without bail.

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July 19, 2001 With pedophile behind bars, others like him should beware.

By Mark Holmberg, Times-Dispatch Columnist

A thief who steals your car or your tools is one thing, but someone who steals the innocence of children is worse than a criminal - he's a terrorist.

Consider the direct and collateral damage caused by pedophiles such as Edward Ray "Eric" Winters of Henrico County and measure it against the devastation wrought by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

Beyond the young lives that have been directly ravaged, we can't trust our children with any adult because of pederasts such as Winters, who tried to sell a 12-year-old neighbor boy to another pedophile via the Internet.

Our youngsters can't roam free in their neighborhoods or in cyberspace.

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July 18, 2001 Offender gives up license. Taxi applicant vows to challenge process.

By Karl Ebert, of the Northwestern

A convicted sex offender plans to challenge the city's demand that he give up his license to drive a taxi in Oshkosh.

Dan G. Oestreich voluntarily surrendered his license Monday, six days after it was approved by the Oshkosh Common Council.

But he also immediately applied for a new license, starting a formal review by the Police Department and the council.

If his application is rejected, he plans to challenge in court.

Council approval of Oestreich's license prompted city officials to begin looking at strengthening the police department's review of applicants and the ordinance that governs licensing.

Oestreich, 52, is an admitted pedophile, but he takes issue with Police Chief David Erickson's assertion that driving a cab puts Oestreich in an environment in which he is more likely to re-offend.

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July 18, 2001 Early-Life Stress May Hurt Brain in Long Run

By Adam Marcus, HealthScoutNews Reporter

Infant lab rats exposed to high levels of a stress-related hormone show signs of persistent and progressive brain damage, new research shows.

The finding offers a new explanation for the link between stress hormones and brain damage, which previously had focused on a different group of compounds. Experts say the finding could one day lead to new treatments for victims of child abuse, neglect and other early-life traumas, and possibly anxiety and depression as well. The study is reported in the July 10 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (news - web sites).

The discovery centers on the hippocampus, a brain region important in learning and memory. Brain imaging studies of people suffering chronic depression and post-traumatic stress disorder have shown markedly smaller cell volume in the region. The shrinkage may be reversible by treatment.

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July 18, 2001 Priest leaves prison, taken into custody

LINCOLN -- An Omaha priest who molested an altar boy was released from prison Tuesday but immediately taken into custody by Douglas County authorities.

Daniel Herek, 56, who was released from the Lincoln Correctional Center, will be held at the Douglas County Health Center while he undergoes mental evaluation. State law allows such offenders to be held after their prison term if they are deemed a danger to themselves or others.

Herek was sentenced in 1998 to 20 months to five years in prison for sexual assault of a child and producing child pornography. He was ordered to complete an in-patient sexual-offender program and serve five year's probation after his release.

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July 18, 2001 Detectives step up hunt for woman paedophile

By Chris Starrs

DETECTIVES hunting a female paedophile suspected of committing more than 60 offences are understood to be investigating possible links with a series of incidents across central Scotland.

Nottinghamshire Police are leading the search for the woman, who poses as a social worker and is occasionally accompanied by a man.

She is thought to be linked to a series of abduction attempts in the Lothians which began in 1992. It is believed she has recently been operating in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire areas.

The behaviour and physical appearance of the woman is strikingly similar in each case. She approaches parents at home, claiming she is a social worker investigating reports of abuse or neglect, and asks to examine the children. In many cases she has run away after being challenged by parents, but the woman is believed to have sexually assaulted dozens of children, many of them under the age of four.

Reports of bogus social workers first surfaced in June, 1992, when a couple took away two young children from their home in East Lothian, before returning them 45 minutes later. The children were unharmed.

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July 18, 2001 Leaflet devastates paedophile

A Northland man convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls says he is devastated at being named in a pamphlet circulating in Whangarei.

The man's name and address appear on a hand-out that has been sent to primary schools in the city, titled Paedophile Alert.

The man, who is in his 60s, was tried in 1996 on historical charges of rape and indecent assault and served three years in jail.

But he maintains he was innocent and says he is no threat to children.

He says his wife and friends have stood by him since his release, but the anonymous pamphlet has come as a blow, and he and his family plan to leave Whangarei.

Whangarei police say the pamphlet writer has breached a court order suppressing the man's name, put in place to protect the identity of the girls, and they are investigating.

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July 12, 2001 Arizona Supreme Court upholds sexual predator law

Associated Press

The Arizona Supreme Court today upheld a law that allows the state to indefinitely confine sexually violent predators for treatment after they've served criminal sentences.

The Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 15 that the law was unconstitutional because it did not require proof that a person was unable to control urges to commit sex crimes.

Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano argued in May that the law applied only to violent sexual predators.

"I think the court correctly recognized that this is a narrowly drawn statute to deal with the worst of the worst," Napolitano said Thursday.

The 1995 law allows civil confinement after prison terms of individuals judged to be sexual predators who would pose a danger to others if released.

Arizona has approximately 135 men confined under the law. Judges had ordered two released because of the Court of Appeals ruling. They now will remain in confinement.

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a similar Kansas law.

July 8, 2001 Pedophile Ring Busted in Costa Rica

A State employee, a lawyer, a computer programmer and two other men were arrested in San Jose today as they sexually exploited four children during an activity of the so called â€œCosta Rican Association of Pedophiles.

A complex and dangerous investigation undertaken by Casa Alianza and officials from the Sexual Exploitation Unit of the Ministry of Public Security, under the supervision of the Special Prosecutor on Sex Crimes that lasted more than six months, culminated with the detention of the five men in the early morning hours today.

The supposed head of the pedophile ring is a 31 year old State employee who, according to the investigation, has produced huge quantities of child pornography with Costa Rican and Nicaraguan children within the State institution which was also raided this morning. Several computers, property of the State of Costa Rica, and hundreds of diskettes containing child porn were decommissioned by the police authorities. Apparently the Costa Rican produced child porn was then circulated by Internet through the State owned computers.

The Costa Rican pedophile ring was infiltrated several months ago by staff from Casa Alianza, a humanitarian organization that works to help street children and at risk kids in Mexico and Central America. The investigation culminated with a police raid that lasted from 2pm on Saturday through the early hours of Sunday morning as the authorities monitored an orgy organized by the five pedophiles in the Costa Rican residence.

For more information, please contact Bruce Harris in Costa Rica at +506-253-5439. Please visit our award winning website.

July 6, 2001 Ruling Could Strip Online Anonymity. Judge Orders ISPs to Reveal Names of Message-Board Critics. (originally published May 26, 2000)

By David Noack

MIAMI (APBnews.com) -- In a ruling that could force anonymous online posters into the open, a Florida judge has ordered America Online and Yahoo to reveal the writers of allegedly defamatory messages.

Dade County Circuit Court Judge Eleanor Schockett's ruling was made Thursday in a lawsuit by a former shipping company executive who claims he was libeled on message boards hosted by the two online companies. AOL and Yahoo, protected by earlier court rulings that Internet service providers (ISPs) are not publishers, are not defendants in the case.

If Schockett's order is upheld on appeal, contributors to online discussions could find themselves weighing their words more carefully. Critics say it would be the end of uninhibited speech on the Internet, where contributors can have their say without revealing their identities. Financial message boards have become popular forums for anonymous posters to discuss not only stock prices, but also how companies are run, with sharp criticism often directed at executives or boards of directors. Corporations have begun following the discussions and sometimes suing online posters for their comments.

J. Erik Hvide filed suit against his anonymous critics after being fired as the head of Hvide Marine Inc. His attorney, Bruce D. Fischman of Miami, said he had been the target of a yearlong campaign that accused him of mismanagement and even criminal behavior. The company later filed for bankruptcy.

"He hired our law firm to sue the anonymous posters for defamation, libel and for intentional interference with a business relationship -- except the defendants are unknown, and we needed to find out who they were," Fischman said.

He said the judge had to balance the right to make anonymous accusations online with the right of someone to face their accuser.

Fischman subpoenaed AOL and Yahoo, seeking the identities of eight anonymous posters with screen names such as "justthefactsjack." The judge rejected a motion by Fort Lauderdale lawyer Christopher K. Leigh to quash the subpoenas.

The judge gave the two companies 20 days to turn over the names.

APBnews.com

July 6, 2001 Fuitive Father Found.

BOSTON - lifornia authorities have arrested a man who has been on the run since his daughter gave police videotapes that allegedly show him raping her teen-age friends.

Worcester, Mass., District Attorney John Conte said California State Park Rangers captured Peter M. Gagnon, 48, on Monday in Carpintera, Calif., about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles.

Authorities say Gagnon fled his Northbridge, Mass., home on May 19, the same day that his daughter gave police the videotapes.

Conte says Gagnon, a former U.S. Marine, drugged and raped six girls over a five-month period this year and last at his home.

A Worcester County Grand Jury returned 80 indictments against him in mid-May, including charges of child rape.

Authorities said the girls did not know they'd been raped until police told them. It is unclear if his 14-year-old daughter, who has gone to live with her mother in Mississippi, was one of the victims.

July 6, 2001 Defendant Sentenced to 16 years.

By Chad Dundas, Associated Press Writer

SPOKANE, Washington (AP) _ Before a judge sentenced her to nearly 16 years in prison, a tearful Lana Vickery said she would have given her life to protect the lives of Japanese college students she helped abduct and rape.

Vickery, 43, pleaded guilty last fall to one count of first-degree rape and one count of first-degree kidnapping stemming from the abductions of three women attending the Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute.

Noting her cooperation with authorities after her arrest, Spokane County Superior Court sentenced Vickery on Thursday to 15 years, 11 months in prison.

Vickery, part of a bondage and sadomasochism ring called the Spokane Power Exchange, was a "branded slave" of co-defendent Edmund Ball and felt powerless to act, defense attorney Mark Hannibal said, adding that his client nevertheless accepted responsibility for the offenses.

Vickery thought Ball would kill her and members of her family if she didn't take part, he added.

Vickery cooperated with authorities after her arrest Nov. 18, telling detectives she was present when Ball, 40, and co-defendant David M. Dailey assaulted two Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute students in the basement of Dailey's Spokane Valley home Nov. 11. A third student was abducted but released before the other two were assaulted.

Mukogawa Fort Wright Institute is a branch of Mukogawa Women's University near Kobe, Japan. Students spend a semester in Spokane, learning English and U.S. culture.

Asian women were targeted because Dailey and Ball thought they would be too ashamed to report the crimes, Vickery told police. After the women flew to Seattle in March to give depositions, and said they would be back for trial, the male defendants accepted plea agreements with prosecutors.

"(Vickery) didn't wait...to see if victims would or wouldn't testify," Hannibal said. "She stepped up to the plate."

None of the victims appeared at Vickery's sentencing.

Vickery cried as she read a statement, saying she felt "deep remorse and sadness" for the crimes and wished "all the circumstances could be redressed."

She said she felt betrayed that she "gave Eddie (Ball) my free will (and) he abused his power over me and convinced Dave (Dailey) to do the same."

"When I have those feelings," Vickery said, "I think I should have let Eddie kill me to prevent anything for happening to someone else."

Vickery said she "helped in every small way I could without arousing suspicion from the men, to make things easier and safer for those girls."

"I would have given my life to protect theirs," she said.

Deputy Spokane County Prosecutor Larry Steinmetz asked Tompkins to consider that the crime was "erpetrated against a certain culture"in sentencing Vickery.

When she is released from prison, Vickery must register as a sex offender and kidnapper.

Ball and Dailey will be sentenced in late July.

Dailey, 38, also is charged with abducting two Japanese students from Eastern Washington University and assaulting them with a stun gun on Oct. 28. Those women managed to escape.

A Spokane police officer was later fired for failing to properly investigate or file a report on that incident a month before the Mukogawa students were abducted.

July 6, 2001 Girls Gift Computer Comes Loaded with Porn (originally published May, 2000).

By Richard Zitrin

NORWALK, Ohio (APBnews.com) -- A 15-year-old girl's grandfather and father have been charged with giving her a computer loaded with hundreds of images of child pornography, police said.

The grandfather, 53-year-old Rodney Saiter, admitted downloading pornography from European Internet sites onto a computer that he had given to his son, 34-year-old Robert Saiter, to give to his teenage daughter at Easter time, said Detective Dane Howard of the Huron County Sheriff's Department.
The girl, who lives in Shamokin, Pa., with her mother and stepfather, found the pornography on the computer and contacted police in Pennsylvania, Howard said.

More than 700 files of pornography were on the computer, and about 75 percent of it was child pornography, he said.

"Most of it was preteens," Howard told APBnews.com. "The ages ranged from 2 to 3 years old to preteens."

Two other machines seized

A warrant for Robert Saiter's arrest was issued in Pennsylvania last week. The suspect told investigators here that his father had downloaded the child pornography onto the girl's computer and that there was more child pornography on his father's computer at his home, Howard said.

Sheriff's investigators searched Rodney Saiter's home and seized two computers, he said.
The Saiters, who live in this city about 60 miles west of Cleveland, were arrested one week ago today, and both are being held in the Huron County Jail, Howard said.

Rodney Saiter, who is being held on $30,000 bond, is charged with disseminating material harmful to juveniles and pandering sexually oriented material involving a juvenile. Robert Saiter is being held without bond awaiting extradition to Pennsylvania to face charges of child sexual abuse and corrupting a minor, authorities said.

July 5, 2001 Great legislation site.

The below link gives information on how we can urge our law makers to re-instate the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act.

http://capwiz.com/pca/issues/alert/?alertid=36731

July 5, 2001 Man jailed for fictitious child sex.

From Herald news services

A man who wrote in his journal about sexually abusing and torturing children has been sentenced to 10 years in prison, even though the stories were fictitious. A civil rights lawyer said he was surprised by the sentency Brian Dalton received Tuesday for his private writings. "What you're saying is somebody can't, in essence, confess their fantasy into a personal journal for fear they have soically unacceptable fantasies, then ultimately they end up getting prosecuted," said Benson Wolman, a former director of the American Civil Liberties Union in Ohio. Dalton, 22 of Columbus, was charged with pandering obscenity involving a minor after his probation officer found the journal during a routine search of his home. He was on probation from a 1998 pandering conviction involving pornographic photographs of child.

July 2, 2001 Man gets 120-year prison sentence for Chicago's Girl X rape case.

CHICAGO - A man was sentenced to 120 years in prison today the maximum for a sex attack that left a 9-year-old child known as Girl X blind, mute and crippled.

"I do not believe that even this sentence is enough for the acts of this defendant, but the law limits the sentence that I can impose," Judge Joseph Urso told Patrick Sykes, a 29-year-old convicted sex offender.

Prosecutors said that in 1997, Sykes lured a girl into an apartment at the crime-ridden Cabrini-Green housing project, sexually assaulted her, poured roach spray down her throat, beat her and left her for dead in a dirty stairwell. The girl became known in the Chicago media as Girl X.

Before the sentences was imposed, Sykes took the witness stand and declared: "No matter how much time I get in this courtroom today, I will still say it is not me... I am innocent."

Girl X testified this spring during Sykes' trial, using head movements to answer questions. She said a man she had often seen in her apartment building offered her a banana, luring her into an apartment, then pulled a knife on her.

On Monday, a prosecutor read a statement initialed by Girl X, now 14 and in a wheelchair, in which she said: "I am glad he is going to jail because he was wrong for doing this to me."

She also said that before the attack, she liked to dance and run around. "I miss walking and talking and playing around and seeing," the statement read. "I can't use my hands. I miss using my hands."

At the time of the attack, Sykes, an unemployed ex-convict, was living in the apartment building with a girlfriend. He denied being the attacker, saying that he had never even seen Girl X until she testified against him.

Police picked up Sykes and questioned him for three days. He was charged after signing what his interrogators said was a confession.

He denied having confessed and said he did not know what he was signing because he was coming out of an epileptic seizure when the paper written in longhand by a prosecutor was placed in front of him.

Sykes had served time in prison for attacking a 17-year-old girl at knifepoint in a hallway, robbing her and exposing himself.

June 28, 2001 Court to study pedophile before sentencing.

By Edward Levenson

Wayne A. Miller pleaded guilty to a sexual assault of a 9-year-old Bedminster girl.

DOYLESTOWN -Wayne A. Miller, convicted of sexually molesting children in Bucks and Montgomery counties, will undergo an evaluation to determine if he is a sexually violent predator, prior to sentencing in both jurisdictions.

Miller, 41, of Old York Road, Abington, pleaded guilty Friday in Bucks County Court to sexually assaulting a 9-year-old girl outside her Bedminster home in June 2000.

Miller pleaded guilty to corruption of minors, which carries a maximum 2 1/2-to-5-year prison term, and indecent assault and indecent exposure, each of which has a maximum term of one to two years.

The defendant -who spent 10 years in state prison for a 1988 sexual assault on a 6-year-old girl in Kutztown, Berks County -pleaded guilty Thursday in Montgomery County Court to sexual assaults last year in Abington of a 14-year-old and a 16-year-old boy. The 14-year-old is the brother of the 9-year-old girl assaulted in Bucks.

Miller pleaded guilty in Montgomery to two counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, each of which carries a maximum five-to-10-year term, and corruption of minors.

Click here for full story.

June 28, 2001 Court sees 'predators' home video.

By Ray Chesterton

FOR 21 horrific minutes, Sydney's District Court G2 sat transfixed yesterday as paedophile Robert "Dolly" Dunn's perverted seduction of boys as young as seven filled three video screens.

The boys, physically undeveloped and oblivious to what was happening despite their paste-on grins, were shown engaging in sex with Dunn, a former Sydney Catholic lay teacher.

Dunn, 60, has pleaded guilty to 24 charges of sexual misconduct, including homosexual intercourse, with eight boys aged from seven to 16.

He also pleaded guilty to three charges of supplying cannabis to induce boys to participate in sex.

Click here for full story.

June 28, 2001 Most offenders being released molested kids.

By Karen Abbott, News Staff Writer

Seventy percent of the sex offenders soon to be released from Colorado prisons or discharged from parole under a new court ruling were convicted of sexually assaulting children.

Among them are a teacher, a counselor, an athletic instructor, a former Denver police officer, uncles who molested their nieces and nephews and a Lakewood man accused of using a 13-year-old girl as a tool in gang-initiation rites.

Also on the list is a Boulder woman, Rebecca Allen, also known as Tony Allen, who was 19 when she was accused in 1994 of dressing as a man and engaging in sexual activities with a 13-year-old girl.

Of the total of 374 offenders, 267 were convicted of assaulting children.

The list includes:

Former Wheat Ridge Junior High School teacher Michael Teubner, who was convicted in 1990 of molesting 10 boys over a decade, plying them with alcohol and showing them pornographic movies in his home.

Christopher Waldmann, who was a counselor for teens in Evergreen when he was accused in 1997 of molesting his foster daughter.

Click here for full story.

June 28, 2001 Paula Pounstone faces child-abuse charges.

by Marcus Errico

Stand-up comic Paula Poundstone is facing serious jailtime after being arrested on child-abuse charges.

The 41-year-old funnywoman, a fixture on the comedy-club and TV game-show circuits, was arrested in Malibu by Santa Monica police Wednesday afternoon on three felony counts of committing a lewd act upon a young girl, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney's office.

She was additionally charged with endangering another girl and two boys.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of 13 years in state prison, authorities say. Poundstone was held for four hours at Santa Monica jail Wednesday night before getting released on $200,000 bail. An arraignment date has not yet been set.

"I have faith that the truth is the right thing," a wan Poundstone told reporters as she exited the jail.

Earlier in the evening, her manager released a brief statement refuting the charges. "I know Paula Poundstone well enough to know these charges are 100 percent incorrect," Bonnie Burns said in a press release. "She has been an incredible parent, she's made huge sacrifices to see that children who weren't dealt the best cards in life were well taken care of and she's always shown herself to be completely honorable and full of integrity."
According to prosecutors, Poundstone allegedly committed the lewd acts on three separate occasions: May 19, June 5 and June 6. The child-endangerment incident also allegedly occurred on June 6. Police said the arrest was made following a lengthy investigation.

Because of their ages, none of the children were identified.

Click here for full story.

June 28, 2001 Mother jailed for selling daughter to paedophile.

An alcoholic Russian mother has been jailed for three years for selling her daughter to a paedophile.

Galina Pankova sold the primary school pupil to a businessman for the equivalent of £24.

The girl, who ran from the car after her mother handed over the cash to the man, was unharmed after the incident in Koverino, near Vladimir.

The local entrepreneur, Sergey Khomenko, who is married and has two sons, has also been jailed for three years.

Pankova confessed at her trial that she agreed to sell her daughter Natasha to Khomenko for 1,000 roubles because she desperately needed money.

"He told me the girl was mature enough for sex," she said.

Natasha has been adopted by Pankova's sister.

Click here for full story.

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