Updates


2001 Updates

September 26, 2001 Boyfriend charged in death of 3-year old boy; body had human bite marks.

A Lakeville man was charged today with unintentional second-degree murder in the death of his girlfriend's 3-year-old son, whose body was found Tuesday covered with bruises and human bite marks, authorities said.

Steven W. McBride, 26, was charged in Dakota County District Court with the death of Dillon B. Blocker, whom he was baby-sitting in their Lakeville apartment.

Bail for McBride, who has several felony convictions, was set at $500,000 by Judge Thomas Lacy.

Police Chief Dan Martens said it was the worst case of child abuse that he and other veteran officers have seen in their 30-year careers.

Dillon was "severely beaten and bitten," said County Attorney James Backstrom. The boy had some healing wounds and fractures that indicated the abuse had gone on for some time, Backstrom said.

An autopsy showed the boy had a ruptured bowel, cuts on his head and a swollen brain. Blunt-force injuries to his head and abdomen caused his death, the county coroner found.

Backstrom said a grand jury will be convened to consider first-degree murder charges.

Backstrom said investigators also will look "very closely" at the mother's possible involvement. Martens said the mother has been too emotional to talk to police.

McBride had been living with the mother, Dillon and the mother's 5-year-old daughter for about six months. The girl has been placed in protective custody, Backstrom said.

"Cases like this are hard to believe," Backstrom said. "It was a painful and horrible death under circumstances that were beyond comprehension."

According to the criminal complaint:

The mother left her children sleeping and in McBride's care on Monday night when she went to work at a Target store.

She said that McBride called her about 1:15 a.m. and said that Dillon apparently fell in the bathroom and hit his head. McBride said he couldn't get Dillon to stop screaming.

The mother came home soon after and saw a cut on Dillon's head. She noticed his breathing was labored. She wanted to take him to the hospital, but McBride told her it wasn't necessary. She then put ice on Dillon's injuries.

The mother fell asleep about 3:30 a.m. and awoke to find Dillon on a bed in the master bedroom with McBride. Dillon was not breathing; the mother called 911.
The autopsy found bruising on the body consistent with human bite marks.

McBride told police that he had grabbed Dillon earlier in the week, causing bruises on the boy's arms, torso and face. But he denied causing any new injuries to the boy that night. The sister said she had heard McBride spanking Dillon while her mother was at work.

The autopsy also found that one of Dillon's teeth had been knocked out and was found in his stomach.

Backstrom said that McBride's criminal record includes convictions for fourth-degree criminal sex with a 16-year-old in August 2000, and burglary convictions in Missouri in 1992 and Florida in 1999.

A court hearing was scheduled for Oct. 4.


September 26, 2001 Des Plaines man charged in death of 2-year-old girl.

By James D. Wolf Jr., Daily Herald

A Des Plaines man was charged Saturday with the murder of his 2-year-old daughter, police said.

The girl died Friday after more than three days of hospitalization, police said.

The Cook County state's attorney's approved the murder charge Saturday in addition to an aggravated child abuse charge against Joel Navarete, 27, of 101 Dover Drive, Apt. 11, according to police records.

The original charge was filed Thursday. Navarete was denied bail when he appeared in court in Skokie that day.

The daughter, Vanessa Dela Luz-Ponce, had been hospitalized Tuesday after Des Plaines police and paramedics arrived at the family's residence about 4:30 p.m. on a report that a child had stopped breathing.

Medical staff at Holy Family Medical Center in Des Plaines obtained a pulse from the girl when she was brought there She was then transferred to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge while on life support.

Police said an investigation showed her father had physically abused the girl.

Click here for full story.


September 26, 2001 Woman says she taped Vegas ex-counselor apologizing after sex.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A woman who was being treated for a multiple personality disorder testified she tape-recorded her former counselor apologizing for having sex with her while she was in the character of a 10-year-old girl.

The 34-year-old woman told a Las Vegas judge that Robert William Hough admitted he "crossed the line and shouldn't have" during a session at the former West Valley Counseling Center in Las Vegas.

While testifying at Hough's preliminary hearing Tuesday, the woman appeared to change into the personality of a 6-year-old girl. She said she has six other personalities, including an inexperienced 10-year-old girl, a flirty 15-year-old and her adult self.

She was expected to undergo cross-examination Wednesday before Justice of the Peace Deborah Lippis decides whether Hough should face trial.

Hough is accused of having sex with the woman last year while he treated her for a condition he diagnosed as dissociative identity disorder.

Nevada law prohibits counselors from having sex with clients.
The woman testified that on one occasion she threatened suicide with a knife in Hough's office. He offered to hold her in exchange for the knife. While explaining the sex acts that she said followed, the woman hid her face, began crying and speaking in a childlike voice.

Deputy District Attorney Mary Kay Holthus asked how old she was, and the woman answered that she was 6 years old.

Hough's lawyer, Michael Amador, said any sex between the two was consensual and expressed skepticism that the woman suffers from such a condition. Amador also suggested the charges against Hough were more about money than mental illness.

Amador said he has subpoenaed the woman's civil lawyer, Robert Eglet, to find out how much Eglet is being paid to file a civil suit against Hough, the now defunct West Valley Counseling Center and the center's sponsor, the International Church of Las Vegas.


September 26, 2001 Mom who fled with girls stays jailed.

The woman who had been living in Texas with her daughters will remain in jail until they return.

PLEASANTON -- A woman who fled to Texas with her two daughters allegedly to keep them from her ex-husband, a registered sex offender, was told Monday that she will remain in jail until the girls are returned.

Debra Schmidt, 42, arrived from Texas to face charges this month after California filed a federal lawsuit forcing her extradition.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Christine Moruza found Schmidt in contempt of a court order demanding the girls return by Monday. Moruza also ordered Schmidt bound over for trial on two felony counts of child abduction.

The judge ordered Schmidt's attorney, Rollie Pennington, to Texas to bring the girls back.

"If you do not do that, Schmidt's imprisonment will be indefinite," Moruza warned.

Schmidt was accused of child abduction after refusing to comply with a 1999 court order by a San Joaquin County judge awarding custody to the girls' father, Manuel Saavedra, 44, of Livermore.

An earlier court order allowed Saavedra only supervised visits with the children and joint custody. Prosecuting attorney Robert Hutchins told the court that Saavedra had taken parenting and sex abuse prevention classes after pleading guilty in 1992 to lewd conduct with a minor.

Hutchins said Saavedra was given visitation rights after the courts found he posed no danger to his children.

Click here for full story.


September 26, 2001 D.C. Sex Offender Law Struck Down.

Judge Orders Police to Stop Publicizing Information About Released Perpetrators

By Spencer S. Hsu, Washington Post

A federal judge has ruled that the District's method of classifying sex offenders under "Megan's Law" is unconstitutional and has told police to stop releasing detailed information about 279 sex offenders and cease registering certain sex offenders who committed crimes while younger than 22.

The law, similar to those passed in all 50 states, is named for Megan Kanka, a 7-year-old New Jersey girl who was raped and strangled in 1994 by a twice-convicted sex offender in her neighborhood. It requires that the public be notified when sex offenders are released into the community.

But U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said the District's method of deciding how widely to publicize the names, photographs and home and work addresses of offenders -- sorting them into three classes of offenses -- violates their due process rights because they are not granted court hearings or the opportunity to argue whether notification is necessary to protect the public.

Laws in other states assess offenders individually, rather than by the type of sex crimes they committed.

Huvelle's ruling, released Wednesday, still requires sex offenders who are released from prison to register with the District's parole agency for 10 years to life, depending on the severity of their crimes. But the judge enjoined the District from publicizing that information, whether by answering inquiries, releasing registration lists at police stations, posting names on the Internet or notifying schools, day-care centers, victims or other vulnerable populations.

"While the government unquestionably has a valid and laudable interest in protecting the public, and in particular our youth, from being victimized," Huvelle wrote, "the beneficence of its aims [does] not excuse it from according to the offenders subject to the statute the due process protections to which they are entitled under the constitution."

Huvelle's ruling applies to at least 279 offenders who lived in the District as of March 27.

Under the District law, three classes of sex offenders existed: 119 offenders were classified as Class A, 149 were Class B and 11 were Class C. All were listed on a police registry available to the public.

Class A offenders committed sex abuse, rape or murder or were determined to be sexual psychopaths. They were subject to the most widespread public notice, including notification to neighborhood schools and vulnerable groups and publication on the Internet.

Class B offenders committed offenses against minors, wards, patients or clients, and their names were published on the Internet before Huvelle issued a temporary restraining order to the city in February to halt that practice.

Class C offenders committed other sex offenses and were deemed less likely to commit future offenses.

Despite the Wednesday order, the D.C. police sex offender registry, at www.mpdc.dc.gov/serv/sor/sexoffender.shtm, still showed the names and addresses of 146 offenders yesterday.

Arabella W. Teal, principal deputy corporation counsel for the District, said yesterday that the office was aware of the ruling but was not prepared to comment on it. A spokesman for the office said that an appeal was possible.

The case was filed on behalf of five offenders by the D.C. public defender's office, which argued that the plaintiffs were subject to stigma, legal burdens and loss of privacy and employment prospects disproportionate to the likelihood that they would commit a new offense.

"The judge ruled that the District cannot cut corners and deem all offenders dangerous without individual assessment and giving people hearings," said Robert L. Wilkins, formerly with the public defender's office and now in private practice. "We had offenders who had been deemed rehabilitated by the system, yet they were still being labled dangerous by the statute."

The judge also said that under sentencing reforms passed last year, people with convictions for sex offenses committed before Aug. 5, 2000, and set aside by the D.C. Youth Rehabilitation Act -- which permits some people younger than 22 to have convictions set aside once they complete their sentences -- do not fall under the city's Megan's Law. That ruling applied to two of the plaintiffs in the case.

Two were found not guilty by reason of insanity for separate assaults in 1969 and 1982 and were sent to St. Elizabeths Hospital. The fifth plaintiff pleaded guilty last year to lewd acts with a 15-year-old boy. His term of five years of supervised probation was terminated early after he received treatment, Wilkins said.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company


September 16, 2001 Study Explores Sexual Exploitation.

Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) — Children who engage in prostitution and the making of pornography are likely to be white, middle-class and familiar with the person who got them involved, according to a study released Monday.

These young people often were abused at home and fled to the streets, where they exchanged sex for money, food and shelter, said the report. It was issued by the University of Pennsylvania and the National Association of Social Workers.
About 326,000 children in the United States are victims of commercial sexual exploitation, the report estimated.

``It's an epidemic that has been off the radar screen and mostly hidden,'' said Richard J. Estes, a social work professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the study's main author.

Equal numbers of boys and girls are involved, but the activities of boys generally receive less attention.

Most people who have sex with children are men, 25 percent of whom are married and have children.

About 47 percent of sexual assaults on children were committed by relatives, 49 percent by acquaintances and only 4 percent by strangers.

The study — titled ``The Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children in the U.S., Canada and Mexico'' — found gaps in policies and services intended to combat sexual exploitation of children and help the victims.

University of New Hampshire sociologist David Finkelhor criticized the study for inflating data by counting some children twice and ignoring recent reports that show the number of runaway youth has declined.

``We agree that the commercial sexual exploitation is a serious problem, but we are of the opinion that at the present time there is not adequate research to make an accurate national estimate,'' said Finkelhor, who runs the Crimes Against Children Research Center.

The University of Pennsylvania report criticized state and local governments for ``benign neglect,'' because too many agencies lacked the resources to detect the problem.

``It's invisible because many people aren't primed to see it. They are attuned to abuse and assault and see the sexual exploitation as more of an adult problem. They can't believe a child would be asked to perform such acts,'' Estes said.
Additional funding would enable government and private agencies to train more people to detect such exploitation, he added.

For the project, researchers selected 28 cities in the three countries, based on the cities' size and reputations for having problems with commercial sexual exploitation of children. Seventeen of the cities are in the United States.

The researchers examined public records and interviewed about 1,000 children, law enforcement officials and human services groups. They used previous data and field research from 288 federal and local agencies to extrapolate their findings to the U.S. population as a whole.

The cities were: United States — Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Detroit, El Paso, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, New Orleans, Oakland, Philadelphia, San Antonio, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco and Seattle; Canada — Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Windsor; Mexico — Acapulco, Cancun, Ciudad Juarez, Guadalajara, Mexico City, Tapachula and Tijuana.


September 10, 2001 Police seek rules for porn busts.

By Kirill Koriukin, Moscow Times

Moscow police have increased the fight against illegal pornography - shutting down illegal underground studios and child-pornoigraphy websites - but can't decide exactly what porn is.

Police recently have closed down a studio producing pornographic videotapes, confiscated 1,200 videocassettes and pulled the plug on 17 websites offering child pornography, Moscow police officials said at a news conference Thursday.

However, the police crusade has been guided more by notions of good and evil than legislation that clearly says what pornography is. There is legislation in place that defines pornography, but it is several years old and is of litle help, police say.

There are cases that are relatively easy for the police to discern. But it is often hard to determine what is legal and what is not, officilas say, meaning officers should rely on the judgment of experts.

" Most of the time we work together with cultural organizations" to decide what is pornography and what isn't," said Valery Tsetkov, head of a division of the Moscow police's department for fighting economic crime. Movie experts such as the members of the Cinema-photography Institute often participate, he said.

Special commissions are being organized to set standards for determining what is illegal, but in the meantime police will continue the raids.

So far only three producers have been charged, the police said.

September 10, 2001 Children's Sexual Exploitation Underestimated, Study Finds.

By Raymond Hernandez

WASHINGTON, Sept. 9 - A detailed study of child sexual exploitation in North America has concluded that the problem is far more widespread than has been previously documented.

The study, to be released on Monday by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, relied on interviews with victims, child welfare workers and law enforcement officials in 28 cities in United States, Mexico and Canada from January 1999 through last March.

It also relied on the latest public and private estimates on the number of runaway and homeless youths in the three countries and on estimates by law enforcement officials and child welfare authorities of the number of these children sexually exploited.

The study estimated that in the United States 325,000 children a year were subjected to sexual exploitation, including prostitution, use in pornography and molestation. The study's authors said the number of abused children was much higher than was previously thought.

Click here for full story.


September 10, 2001 Salvation Army duo on paedophile charges.

TWO Salvation Army workers at a British Army base in Germany have been arrested and charged in connection with a paedophile network.

The case has sparked outrage among the army community in Bielefeld in northwest Germany and officers privately expressed fears last night that an extensive child sex ring could have been set up within the Forces.

Click here for full story.


September 10, 2001 Head of Children's Services says he won't stay in the job under the new mayor.

By Nina Bernstein

Nicholas Scoppetta, whose six- year overhaul of the city's long-troubled child welfare bureaucracy transformed it from a national scandal to an agency widely praised for making real reforms, announced yesterday that he would not serve as its commissioner in a new mayoral administration.

Months ago, Mr. Scoppetta indicated that he was willing, even eager, to stay on as commissioner of the city's Administration for Children's Services, an agency created in response to a public outcry over the death of 6- year-old Elisa Izquierdo while she was nominally under the city's protection.

But yesterday, though Mr. Scoppetta called his revamping of the child welfare system unfinished, he said the time was ripe for him to write, speak and teach about what had been accomplished so far.

"I think there are systems across the country that have our problems and maybe are not so far along in dealing with them," he said.

Mr. Scoppetta is widely credited with strengthening the management, training, pay and accountability within the city agency. His credibility as a reformer allowed him to lay to rest two sweeping class action lawsuits that had asked a federal judge to take over the $1.2 billion system, which had a long history of breaking promises to change.

To drive home his message of accountability, Mr. Scoppetta recently ordered the closing of a city office that administered foster homes in Manhattan and Staten Island after it scored at the bottom of the city's new evaluation of foster care agencies - the most comprehensive and sophisticated one ever conducted.

But many veterans of past foster care overhauls that ultimately unraveled had hoped Mr. Scoppetta would stay on to see his changes through. They worry that pitfalls lie ahead, including the possibility that an economic downturn and welfare time limits could leave more poor children vulnerable to harm, whether they stay with their parents or are placed in foster care.

Mr. Scoppetta acknowledged that many of his changes had not yet penetrated to the day-to-day experiences of children and families in the child welfare system. His critics say the agency removes children from home unnecessarily and, in practice, is too slow in returning them.

Improving training and pay at the private nonprofit agencies that care for nearly 90 percent of children in the system is "one of the great undones," he said in an interview yesterday. Staff turnover at the private agencies is high, and he said he hoped foster care rates paid to the agencies would be increased.

But Mr. Scoppetta noted with pride that for the first time in memory the number of children in foster care this month - 29,800 - was lower than the number (30,000) who receive home services that are aimed at keeping them out of foster care. The foster care population was at 43,000 when Mr. Scoppetta took office, declining from its 1991 peak of 49,100. The previous low of 16,230 was set in 1983, before the crack epidemic that overwhelmed a system already in disarray.

Mr. Scoppetta took on what many regarded as an impossible job when Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who had cut child welfare staff during his first two years in office, vowed to fix the system after Elisa Izquierdo's death in 1995. Investigation showed the city had rejected, ignored, or incompetently investigated at least seven formal reports of possible abuse or neglect before Elisa was beaten to death by her mother.

Mr. Scoppetta, a longtime prosecutor who lived in an orphanage as a child, was promised direct access to the mayor and millions of dollars for the agency, which Mayor Giuliani separated from the city's Human Resources Administration by executive order.

"All of our reforms flow from that decision," Mr. Scoppetta said, urging New Yorkers to approve an amendment to the New York City Charter on Nov. 6 that would make the separation permanent.

Mr. Scoppetta's aggressive efforts to lower caseloads and increase worker training helped him to reach an innovative settlement of longstanding federal litigation by Marcia Robinson Lowry, director of Children's Rights Inc. He agreed to have the agency monitored from inside for two years by a national panel of experts, led by the director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child advocacy organization.

That decision became a personal triumph last year when the panel's final report praised the agency's "remarkable progress." The panel also said that a great deal remained to be done if Mr. Scoppetta's ambitious five-year plan, including a reorganization of services to children along neighborhood lines, was to become a reality.

Mr. Scoppetta credited the panel with shifting his focus from child removal, which characterized his first three years in office, toward a recognition that child safety could often be better served by preventing the trauma of foster care placement in the first place.

"Mayors in the past have panicked and dismissed child welfare administrators every time there's been some crisis," Mr. Scoppetta said. "The average tenure has been something like a year and a half - and that is a mistake." He added, "I hope the new mayor picks a committed person and supports that person."

The New York Times


September 10, 2001 Sex Abuse Lawsuit Is Settled by Mormons for $3 Million.

By Gustav Niebuhr

>The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints disclosed yesterday that it >would pay $3 million to settle a suit by an Oregon man molested as a child by >a church member. The suit said Mormon officials had known that the molester >had been accused of sexual abuse before.

>The case is unusual not only because the church disclosed the amount of the >settlement, in advance of news conferences by the plaintiffs' lawyers today, >but also because it centers on abuse by a man who was not a member of the >clergy. That man died in 1995.

>In an interview, Von G. Keetch, a Salt Lake City lawyer representing the >church, said it strongly believed that the case "lacked merit" and had >settled only out of concern that the litigation, already a decade old, could >continue for years more, at high cost.

>Mr. Keetch said the decision was made after a number of rulings against the >church by a county judge presiding over the case in Portland. Among the >rulings was that the church could be held liable for the conduct of one >member against another, and that the plaintiff could argue that the abuser >was a clergyman because he held the rank of high priest, which the church >describes as a common lay title.

>The suit was filed in December 1998 by a Portland man, Jeremiah Scott, who >eventually sought $1.5 billion in damages from the church. He accused its >authorities of withholding knowledge from his family that another member, >Franklyn Curtis, had previously been accused of molesting children.

>His lawyer, David Slader, said Mr. Scott was abused in 1991, the year he >turned 11, after his mother invited Mr. Curtis to live with the family. Mr. >Curtis, who was 88 and had been living in a group home, was a member of the >same congregation as the Scotts.

>Before bringing Mr. Curtis into her home, Mr. Slader said, Mrs. Scott sought >advice from a local Mormon bishop, who advised the family against it because >it would be too much work, but who did not inform them of the earlier >accusations.

>Mr. Slader noted that Mr. Curtis had been previously excommunicated after >being accused of molesting children. But when he came to live with the >Scotts, his membership had been restored and he held the title of high >priest. He had not been criminally charged with abuse at that point, but >later pleaded guilty to molesting Mr. Scott, Mr. Slader said.

>"It's the institution that knew," Mr. Slader said, referring to church >authorities.

>"A church," he added, "owes a very, very special and high duty to the >children of its parishioners, the children whose souls it has taken >responsibility for."

>Mr. Keetch, the lawyer for the church, quoted the bishop who advised the >Scotts as saying in a deposition that he had known of no abuse accusations >against Mr. Curtis.

>Mr. Keetch said Mr. Curtis had been excommunicated in the 1980's in >Pennsylvania, where he lived before moving back to Oregon. The decision to >excommunicate, Mr. Keetch said, followed the notification by another Oregon >bishop to church authorities in Pennsylvania that Mr. Curtis had been accused >of having "inappropriately touched a child" in an Oregon congregation >different from the one where he and the Scotts were later members together.

>Mr. Curtis was readmitted to membership "after a fairly lengthy period of >repentance," Mr. Keetch said, but never had any supervisory position over Mr. >Scott and in fact held no leadership position at all. According to the >church, the title of high priest is bestowed on Mormon men in good standing >over the age of 40.

>Mr. Keetch said he believed there was "no church that does more either to >protect children or to provide assistance to children" who have been abused.
The New York Times


September 10, 2001 Man Gets Prison for '64 Sex Assaults.

By Tom Jackman

A 68-year-old Springfield man, who admitted sexually assaulting three young girls in his home in 1964, was sentenced yesterday to four years in prison and ordered to pay two of his victims $20,000 toward their psychotherapy bills.

The prosecution of James A. Rogers, of the 6300 block of Pioneer Drive, was the oldest case ever brought in Fairfax County. Rogers was arrested in October and pleaded guilty in March, and the case seemed on its way to a routine conclusion.

But when two of the victims -- former neighbors of Rogers now in their forties -- demanded that Rogers pay more than $178,000 in restitution for the therapy and medical bills they accrued in recent years, Circuit Court Judge Robert W. Wooldridge faced a dilemma: how to penalize a sex offender financially, especially for damages inflicted nearly 40 years ago.

Prosecutors often seek restitution from defendants in cases of theft or property damage, and sometimes do so in violent crimes. Fairfax prosecutors said they had obtained court orders forcing sex offenders to pay for therapy for rape or molestation victims. But since no one had ever tried a 37-year-old case in the county, there was no precedent for Wooldridge's ruling.

Rogers's attorney, Thomas Woehrle, argued that restitution wasn't appropriate in a criminal case and was better left to a civil lawsuit. Wooldridge disagreed but allowed Woehrle to subpoena the victims' detailed medical and psychological records. When the women took the witness stand to detail the lasting effects of the childhood sexual assaults, Woehrle cross-examined them at length about the other traumas they had suffered in their adult lives.

In the late 1990s, both women were depressed and in counseling. One, who is 43, said she was at her sister's house in 1998, and "something just clicked. It made me look his name up in the phone book. I don't know why. He was still there. And I started remembering."

The other woman, who is 45, said she received electroshock therapy in 1999, and "it triggered something in my mind. I started to have memories of very horrific abuse." Both women denied that therapists suggested the abuse to them. They have said previously that when they approached another old friend from the neighborhood, the friend told them she had never forgotten what occurred in Rogers's home. That friend became the third accuser in the case.

The first two women went to Fairfax police in 1999 and agreed to wear hidden transmitters and visit Rogers, a retired mail carrier. Twice they confronted him after not seeing him for decades. According to the transcripts, he admitted to some molestations. But he adamantly denied the women's most serious allegations, both on tape and to a Fairfax detective, and prosecutors did not charge him with rape or sodomy.

The refusal to file the most serious charges, Woehrle told the judge, "suggests their recollection of these events is unfortunate and misguided." Although the women had physical and marital problems and suicidal tendencies and had undergone shock therapy, Woehrle said "there have been numerous events that have destroyed their lives," not only the molestations.

One of the women told Wooldridge, "I have been essentially imprisoned for life due to Mr. Rogers's abuse, and I believe Mr. Rogers should share that imprisonment."

Rogers told the judge, "I truly, truly am sorry for the tragic situation that's happened to these girls. I'll have this on my mind the rest of my life."

Wooldridge ruled that prosecutors largely had not proved a link between the molestations and the women's current difficulties. But he did order Rogers to pay $5,000 to each of the two women in each of the next two years for future treatment and sentenced him to the maximum 15 years. He suspended 11 years of that term.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company


September 10, 2001 Md. Scout Leader Charged with Abuse.

By Phuong Ly, Washington Post Staff Writer

A Potomac Boy Scout leader was charged yesterday with sexually abusing a boy from January 1995 to September 1999, starting when the teenager was 13 years old, Montgomery County police said.

Richard Kent James, 35, of the 11200 block of Tildencrest Court, was charged with child abuse, second-degree sex offense, third-degree sex offense and unnatural or perverted sex act.

James was being held in the Montgomery County jail in lieu of $50,000 bond.

Police Capt. Tim Delaney said that Boy Scout officials told him that they would take immediate action to remove James from any scouting duties.

Police said an investigation began in April when they received copies of e-mails that James had sent and an anonymous letter saying that a man named "Rick James" with the Boy Scouts had molested a child.

According to charging documents, James told detectives during an Aug. 2 interview that he had met the boy referred to in the e-mails in church and served as the boy's father figure.

James later identified the boy as someone who now lives near Seattle, police said.

The boy, now 19, told police that James first sexually assaulted him when he was 13 years old and they were house-sitting in Potomac, the charging documents said.

The boy said the sexual abuse continued, including on scouting trips, until he was 16, the documents say.

The boy later moved to Washington state to live with his father, the charging documents say.

Gregg Shields, a national spokesman for the Boy Scouts, said the group would fully cooperate with police in the investigation.

"We take protecting our children very seriously," he said, adding that Scouts are taught to resist and report sexual abuse.

James was listed as the leader of Troop 241 in south Potomac, according to a Boy Scouts Web page. Delaney said police would be discussing James's arrest with members of the troop.

Police ask anyone with information to call detectives at 240-773-5030.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company

September 7, 2001 Child Porn Round Up.

The A.P., Sept. 1, Little Rock, Ark.: A man convicted in Pulaski County Circuit Court last year and sentenced to 50 years for raping a young girl, was given an additional federal sentence of seven and a half years for distributing pornographic pictures of children. Daniel Scott Chrobak, 36, of Jacksonville, plead guilty in federal court to possessing and distributing child pornography by computer.

The Houston Chronicle, Aug. 31, Dickinson, Texas: As many as five more Houston-area people are expected to be arrested in connection with a child pornography ring uncovered here this week, police said. Dickinson police and the FBI arrested three men Wednesday who were indicted on federal charges of child pornography. Raids at the men's homes turned up video footage of two teen-age boys, 15 and 16, engaging in sex acts with one another. Dickinson police said they received a tip in July about a plot to construct a child pornography Web site and worked with the FBI to gather information about the plot.

The Ledger (Lakeland, Fla.), Aug. 31, Bartow, Fla.: A Polk County jury deliberated about an hour before convicting 22- year-old Jon Paul Burnett on 138 counts of child pornography. Authorities alleged that they found 135 images of child pornography in Burnett's computer after executing a search warrant on his home in March 2000. The jury also found Burnett guilty on two counts of lewd and lascivious conduct involving a child. These charges stemmed from a videotape he made with boys ages nine and 12.

Chapel Hill Herald, Aug. 30, Hillsborough, N.C.: A convicted child pornographer from Orange County is facing additional state charges for allegedly raping and committing other sexual offenses with a child and for a crime against nature with a dog. Steven Dixon Prentice, 36, who lived in northern Orange County, is already serving a 17-year federal sentence for possession and production of child pornography. The new warrants are for crimes discovered during Operation Avalanche, an international investigation into a child pornography ring Web site.

The A.P., Aug. 28, Tucson, Ariz.: A Tucson man who admitted having tried to arrange a sexual tryst with someone he thought was a teen-age girl was sentenced to lifetime probation on Monday. Thomas L. Henkels, 65, plead guilty earlier to one count of luring a minor for sexual exploitation. The U.S. Postal Service suspected that Henkels, who had a home in Moline, Ill., as well as in Tucson, had been trying to trade child pornography via the Internet.

Roanoke Times & World News, Aug. 28, Roanoke, Va.: A Roanoke nudist who played strip poker and watched X-rated movies with an 11-year-old, and downloaded child pornography from the Internet was sentenced Monday to serve four years in prison. Walter Leroy Johnson pleaded guilty to the charges last March.

Copley News Service, Aug. 27, Los Angeles, Calif.: A Rancho Palos Verdes anesthesiologist plead not guilty Monday to charges connected to sexually explicit Internet conversations he had with an FBI agent who pretended to be a 14-year-old girl. Dr. Thomas Richard Bardolph, 49, was indicted last week on federal charges of using the Internet to lure a minor into sexual activity, child pornography and criminal forfeiture.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Aug. 29, Atlanta, Ga.: A federal grand jury indicted a former music teacher Tuesday on charges that he downloaded child pornography from the Internet, federal officials said. Robert Stoskopf Sr., who lives near the DeKalb-Gwinnett line in Doraville, was indicted in December on eight counts of receiving child pornography through the Internet. Stoskopf entered a guilty plea last month in Loudoun County, Va., on a charge of attempting to contribute to the delinquency of a minor.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Aug. 31, Charlottesville, Va.: A former Albemarle County social worker has plead guilty to distributing child pornography he downloaded from the Internet. Patrick M. Quigley, 47, had been an investigator with the county child protective services for nearly two years when he was arrested in August 2000.

The Des Moines Register, Aug. 30, Council Bluffs, Iowa: A Council Bluffs man has been arrested on federal child pornography charges as a result of a global investigation of a Russian Web site. David Peterson, 44, was arraigned Tuesday under an indictment charging him with receipt of child pornography and possession of child pornography.

Copley News Service, Aug. 29, Peoria, Ill.: A man arrested in the midst of an investigation into the nation's largest child pornography ring could spend the next five years in prison. Scott L. Johnson, 59, was found guilty Wednesday on three counts of possession of child pornography. Postal Inspector Robert Williams said, "All child porn is visual evidence of the sexual abuse of a child," he said. "Imagine if you are 35 and images of you were floating around from 20 or 30 years ago. Imagine the embarrassment and the mental anguish."

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Aug. 28, Fayetteville, Ark.: A Garfield man accused of using the Internet to order a videotape from a federal agent posing as a child pornography dealer plead innocent Monday to child pornography charges. Charles Eric Newman, 27, was indicted Aug. 8, in U.S. District Court in Fayetteville on charges of possessing child pornography that had been shipped across state lines and downloading child pornography onto his computer. Authorities began investigating Newman after he responded to an Internet ad by an undercover inspector. The ad, placed on an Internet news bulletin board called "alt.sex.babies," offered videos showing "HOT ACTION of pre- teen and young teen girls and boys." According to an affidavit, Newman sent the inspector an e-mail with child pornography attached on April 28. Newman agreed to trade a compact disc of illicit images of children for a videotape showing a 13-year-old girl touching an adult man sexually while an 11-year-old girl watches, the affidavit states.


August 30, 2001 Paedophile businessman escapes jail.

A paedophile businessman wanted by the FBI has walked free from a British court with a fine. Jonathan Aslett, 53, was arrested in Greater Manchester after firefighters tackling a fire at his office spotted pornographic images of children.

Aslett was fined £3,250 with £1,000 costs after pleading guilty to 13 charges of making indecent photographs.

The maximum sentence is three years.

Police found 339 obscene images on a computer

Sentencing Aslett at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Stuart Fish said: "I am sure this was a salutary lesson to you and a clear indication of what would happen should you stray again."

Detectives from the Obscene Publications Squad seized a bag from his property which contained indecent pictures of children.

Click here for full story.


August 30, 2001 Mother takes deal in pedophile case.

Donna J. Robb, Plain Dealer Reporter

Akron

A 37-year-old mother who was accused of endangering her child by allowing him to associate with a pedophile pleaded guilty yesterday to obstructing justice.

Donna Heatherly wept moments before deciding to accept the plea agreement, which she believes may aid her in regaining custody of her three children. She probably will receive probation when she is sentenced Sept. 25, said Assistant County Prosecutor Gregory Peacock.

"I did not knowingly or recklessly endanger my son. I would have gone to trial rather than plead to anything that suggested I am an unfit mother," she said. "I just want to finally be able to at least have more visitation with my kids."

Heatherly's son was 12 last September, when Donald R. Neff, a former Boy Scout leader, persuaded the boy to run away with him. Neff took him from Goodyear Middle School, and they hid from police for two days. Neff and the boy were arrested in Kent, where Neff had been convicted in 1990 of abusing another boy.

Unaware of his conviction, Heatherly had allowed her son to go camping with Neff and spend most of last summer at Neff's house. Detectives told her in August that they were investigating Neff for allegedly having sex with her son and another Akron boy.

Click here for full story.


August 30, 2001 Online sting nets 100th paedophile.

A young Dutchman has just become the 100th person to be arrested by the Cook County sheriff's child exploitation unit, after he flew all the way to Chicago for sex with an underage girl. Instead of the 14-year old he expected to meet, he stepped straight off the plane into the long arms of the law.

Menno Blom (23), is the first person to have incriminated himself by using the Internet to send realtime video images of himself to undercover detectives. The 14-year old he believed he was soliciting was, of course, none other than a burly Chicago cop with a talent for portraying himself as a teenage girl.

Click here for full story.


August 30, 2001 Guzzo: OPP destroyed Cornwall porn tapes.

Ontario Provincial Police destroyed evidence of an alleged pedophile ring in Cornwall, says Tory MPP Garry Guzzo.

Guzzo, who once threatened to publicly identify those he claimed were involved in the ring, said police destroyed at least 26 homemade pornographic videotapes years ago that proved the existence of the ring.

``They were quick to destroy the tapes,'' said Guzzo, MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean.

Guzzo said the ``kingpins'' of the alleged pedophile clan - several prominent members of the Cornwall community - appeared on the videotapes with young boys.

Click here for full story.


August 30, 2001 Japanese pedophile judge walks free.

AFP - A 43-year-old Tokyo High Court judge walked free from court today after he was given a suspended jail term for having sex with underage teenage girls.

The Tokyo District Court handed down a two-year jail term suspended for five years to the judge in the dock, Yasuhiro Muraki, a court spokesman said.

"As a guardian of the law, he should have disciplined himself. But he repeated despicable crimes. He committed indecent crimes, which were unprecedented for a judge, and betrayed the public's trust," said presiding judge Megumi Yamamuro, according to Jiji Press news agency.

Labelled a "dirty old man" by Yamamuro after pleading guilty in July, Muraki had paid a 14-year-old girl Y20,000 ($A312) in January for sex and paid another 15-year-old girl Y10,000 ($A156) for sex in April, according to the ruling.

He also gave Y10,000 to a 16-year-old girl to fondle her in April, it said.

All appointments were arranged through a telephone dating service.

Click here for full story.


August 25, 2001 Ex Somers Point cop arrested in Internet child-sex sting.

By KELLY CAMPBELL

VINELAND - A retired Somers Point police captain has been arrested after he showed up at a location where he believed he was going to meet a 12-year-old girl to engage in sexual activity, according to the Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office.

Lawrence J. Ceres, 56, of the 100 block of Dover Avenue in Egg Harbor Township, was charged Friday with endangering the welfare of a minor, criminal attempted aggravated sexual assault and possession and distribution of child pornography, according to county Prosecutor Arthur Marchand.

"I think we're the first in New Jersey to do this, but I have a detective who goes online as a 12-year-old girl and he gets hit on by these sick individuals," Marchand said.

Detective Sgt. James Parent and Detective Keith Dunn of the county prosecutor's Special Victims and Special Investigations units conducted the weeklong undercover sting operation during which Dunn posed as the girl while communicating with Ceres on the Internet. Dunn arranged to meet Ceres Friday at 1 p.m. in Giampietro Park between Lincoln and Landis avenues in Vineland, authorities said.

"The police officer had it all lined up," Marchand said. "We had the time the girl was supposed to be at the certain area and Ceres showed up and headed right toward her."

But the person waiting to meet him was not who Ceres was expecting. Rather, it was a female undercover police officer.

Click here for full story.


August 25, 2001 Man, 19, charged in cyber sex case with Cape girl, 11.

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE — A 19-year-old Salem County man has been charged with attempted aggravated assault of an 11-year-old Cape May girl he met in an Internet chat room, according to authorities.

Kevin Walter Jenkins, of Elmer, was arrested July 27 at the Cape May County Prosecutor's Office building after an interview, county Chief of Detectives Jim Rybicki said Friday.

Jenkins admitted during the interview that he had tried to arrange a meeting with the girl, Rybicki said.

Jenkins, a Web-page designer at the University of Pennsylvania, was charged with the first-degree offense and sent to the Cape May County Jail on $25,000 bail. Jenkins posted bail on July 28, according to jail records.

Click here for full story.


August 23, 2001 Pedophile Caught in Thailand Admits Porn Habit.

By Dominic Whiting

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A U.S. pedophile on the FBI's 10 "most wanted" list admitted in detention in Thailand on Thursday he was addicted to child pornography but said he was a lonely voyeur rather than an international pedophile kingpin.

Arrested in Bangkok earlier this week after more than a year on the run, 49-year-old Eric Franklin Rosser said he was "ashamed" of his activities but that charges brought against him in the United States were exaggerated.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pegged Rosser as one of its most wanted criminals, sought in connection with "the international production, distribution, and exchange of child pornography...(and) his alleged molestation of a number of young girls in Thailand."

But Rosser said the charges were overblown.

"I really think they (the FBI) came here expecting to find some kingpin in the porn industry, but they just found me in my little lonely, pathetic habit," he told Reuters ahead of a Thai court hearing.

"It was just a private thing. I was ashamed of it, but it was part of me," he said. "I'm a voyeur, that's what I really am. Most of what I did was look at pictures."

A Bangkok district court jailed him for eight months on Thursday for entering Thailand on a false passport, but commuted the sentence to four months because he pleaded guilty.

The sentence is the first step in legal moves which are likely to see him extradited to the United States.

Source: Reuters


August 23, 2001 Internet paedophile jailed.

A paedophile who filmed sex sessions with underage girls he met in internet chatrooms has been sentenced to eight years in jail.

Peter Ashford, 48, of Thetford in Norfolk, admitted a total of 13 charges against the girls at an earlier hearing.

The charges included one count of rape, two of buggery, three counts of indecent assault and two charges of unlawful sexual intercourse.

He was also charged with two counts of taking pornographic photographs.

Ashford struck up relationships with two 14-year-old girls via internet chat rooms.

Judge Anthony Thorpe at Chichester Crown Court gave Ashford a 12 year sentence, made up of eight years in prison followed by four of extended supervision.

He added: "This case is yet another warning to parents of the dangers of internet chatrooms, allowing men like (Ashford) to strike up acquaintances with young girls.

"It is clear that many parents have no idea just what undesirable friendships are being established with their children over the net."

Click here for full story.


August 23, 2001 Man arrested for computer porn.

By Larry Hobbs, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

A Royal Palm Beach man thought he was meeting a 14-year-old girl for a sexual rendezvous in Plantation Tuesday, but he was met instead by a Broward County sheriff's deputy with handcuffs.

Mohamed Ghanie, 26, of 192 Gulfstream Circle, was arrested and charged with one count of computer pornography, a third degree misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, the report said. Ghanie was released from Broward County jail Tuesday on $1,000 bond, sheriff's office spokesman Jim Leljedal said.

According to deputies, Ghanie used the screen name "MG21" on Aug. 8 when he entered an online chatroom and propositioned what he thought was a 14-year-old. The "girl" was actually Broward sheriff's Detective Joe Vella. A member of Broward's multi-agency task force Law Enforcement Against Child Harm (LEACH), Vella was online pretending to be a young girl.

Click here for full story.


August 22, 2001 A Safety Article for our children.

CAUTION, ENTERING THE NET*

By Bill Dworin

It's probably the most often repeated admonition we give our children, Don't talk to strangers. We have said it so many times as we send our kids off to the bus or to the pizza parlor, but those words have come to have another meaning in today's world of cyber-space. The Internet, with its ability to open doors on the world, has also allowed a dangerous group of people access to our most precious children in a way that many or us are not aware of or have taken much notice to monitor.

It can happen in any town of any size to any child in any family. Talking to strangers may be exactly what your child is doing when he or she goes online. The person your children are chatting with may be a child there own age or could be a sexual predator who seeks out children via the Internet. There is no way to determine just who the person is whom your children are chatting with.

Who are these predators? The name given to them is pedophile. You have heard the term before and may have some idea what a pedophile is. They befriend children, gain their confidence and use pornography to lower the child's inhibitions.

A pedophile is a person who is sexually attracted to children. He (or she) follows through on this attraction by seducing and influencing children. Pedophiles are devious and understand a child's vulnerabilities and manipulate their victims into deceiving others to meet the predator's desire.

The Internet is a way for these people to connect with children in their own homes. For twenty-two years, as a Los Angeles Police Department detective, I investigated just these types of crimes and have heard from victims and offenders exactly what actions are taken in the process of the crime. Most often, the pedophile offers affection and attention-either in person or through the Internet- building a friendship with the child.

The popularity of the Internet has been a blessing for the pedophile. It is a simple matter to create a profile of a child and meet other children in children's chat rooms, rooms that are supposed to be safe. After meeting a child and establishing a friendship with common interests, likes and dislikes, the pedophile may suggest a personal meeting. He then tells the child that he is an adult and would be willing to pick the child up at a park or some place convenient, away from home. He would almost certainly tell the child to keep this meeting a secret from the parents. And the child would. He is not talking to a stranger anymore but to a friend. Someone who has promised a trip to the zoo, a new computer game or whatever the child has an interest in. This is not a one-time meeting. The pedophile wants to establish a long-term relationship. He wants the child to return time after time. As these meetings progress, the crime takes place and it becomes something the child feels responsible for and thus not willing to disclose.

Another way a pedophile meets children on line is to search for a child's profile. Usually, the child will describe himself, listing his age, area where he lives, and likes and dislikes. This makes it easy to befriend that child by agreeing to his likes and dislikes and discussing the problems the child might have; the pedophile is the child's friend.

One way that I have learned of this activity was by creating my own profile, that of a 12-year-old child. Without going into any chat rooms, I was contacted by people wanting to meet me and establish a physical relationship. Some were local residents, willing to travel a short distance for the meeting. Others were from other states or foreign countries, either willing to travel to Los Angeles to meet me or to pay my way to their city and allow me to stay at their homes.

These people also sent me both adult and child pornography. They made sure that I knew that the activity was a secret. If I were a child lacking affection at home, I would have become a victim of abuse, or worse and the crime would generally go unreported.

What can parents do to protect their children? Education is the key. Be familiar with the problem and ways to prevent this exploitation.Talk to your child and make sure that he or she understands what is being discussed. Teach your child the dangers of the computer and steps to prevent being victimized.

Some simple things to tell your child are:

Should your child be approached online, what should you do?

Government studies have suggested that one in four girls and one in seven boys will be sexually abused before their eighteenth birthday. Look at the children in your child's classroom and remember these statistics.Then consider this: the statistics are wrong.

As many boys will be sexually abused as girls and nobody will know how many because the abuser will not be that stranger molester. He will be someone the child knows, respects, is in a position of authority over the child or is a relative. Are you going to allow your child to become a statistic?

Bill Dworin is a nationally recognized expert in the field of child sexual exploitation. He has spoken to concerned parents throughout theUnited States on ways to protect their children. You can contact him at 661 2597442 or online at BNCD1@aol.com.

* Article published in Central Coast Parent Magazine, June2000.


August 20, 2001 Five Killed in Sacramento Rampage. All Victims From Same Family; Search Continues for Suspect.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Aug. 20) - A man believed to be a Russian immigrant allegedly stabbed his wife to death Monday and then drove to another home where he killed four other family members -- an elderly couple, a young girl, and a baby boy found dead on the front porch, police said.

''We have a total of five victims, one suspect responsible for all five,'' Sacramento County Sheriff's Department spokesman James Lewis told reporters.

Police said they received the report of the first murder in the Sacramento, California, suburb of North Highlands, and while investigating that received reports of more killings in another suburb, Rancho Cordova.

A 9-year-old girl found at the second location was taken to a local hospital with serious stabbing injuries, where she was pronounced dead on arrival, a spokeswoman for the University of California Davis Medical Center said.

A 2-year-old boy from the same family was believed missing, Lewis said.

Source: Reuters


August 20, 2001 Offender walks free.

August 16, 2001 -- Cybermistress Beth Loschin betrayed her sex-fiend boyfriend James Warren and is cooperating with authorities investigating the S&M torture of a runaway teenage girl, sources told The Post.

Loschin, 46, is free on $165,000 bond with no restrictions and scurried away from the Nassau County Courthouse yesterday, while Warren, 41, is being held without bail in the horrifying case.

The dowdy mother of two turned against Warren after both were busted for abducting, beating and sexually brutalizing a 15-year-old girl they met on the Internet, sources said.

Investigators said she led them to the Queens apartment of cyberpal Michael Montez, who allegedly "borrowed" the victim for two nights of terror after Loschin e-mailed him her photograph.

Loschin ignored reporters' questions as she left the courthouse in Mineola, L.I., and covered her face while her lawyer shoved photographers aside. Warren's former girlfriend, art teacher Rickie Rodell, attended the hearing to see the defendants, who could face life in prison if the case is transferred to the feds.

"I wanted to spit on her," Rodell said of Loschin, claiming the middle-aged woman from Farmingdale, L.I., hooked up with her former lover through an Internet network of S&M fanatics.

"He has messed up my life," she said of Warren, whom she dumped in March because of his obsession with sadistic and kinky sex practices.

"I said, 'I like my body. You're not doing that to me,'" Rodell said, adding that Warren "has a temper and the strength of two bulls."

Cops raided Warren's basement lair in Hampton Bays, L.I., late Tuesday night after getting a search warrant from a judge.

They confiscated his computer and discs, but left behind the gold "nipple clamps" he used as a bookmark in his Book of Common Prayer because it wasn't considered evidence.

Click here for full story.


August 20, 2001 Reardon sentenced to 40 years.

Judge says molester poses 'serious risk'

By Farah Stockman , Globe Staff, Globe Correspondent, 8/18/2001

SALEM - Doling out a punishment that even he called rare in his career, Judge Isaac Borenstein said yesterday that the ''secret world of sexual abuse'' Christopher Reardon created with young boys was so callous and obsessive it merited 40 to 50 years in prison and parole supervision for life.

''It is clear to me that unless you are in jail for most of your life, there is a serious risk to other people,'' Borenstein said, as Reardon sat stone-faced at the defense table. ''I do not do this, Mr. Reardon, with one ounce of happiness or glee.''

With that, a clerk stood and read the sentence that ended the state's largest child molestation case in recent memory.

Last month, the church youth worker and YMCA camp counselor pleaded guilty to 75 counts involving 24 boys, including child rape, indecent assault on a child, and giving pornography to minors.

Though Borenstein sentenced him on each of the 75 counts, all sentences will run concurrently with the 40- to 50-year sentence for child rape. Because of truth-in-sentencing laws, he must serve at least 40 years before he is eligible for parole.

As the sentence was read in Superior Court, the anxious parents of Reardon's victims held hands tightly with their teenage sons. Reardon's father kissed his crying wife on the cheek as their relatives wept.

But Reardon, 29, in handcuffs and leg irons, showed little emotion as officers led him from the courtroom.

Source: Globe Newspaper Company

August 20, 2001 He was always helping people.

By DALE LEZON, Houston Chronicle

Acquaintances shocked that self-proclaimed priest was convicted pedophile.

Stooped and haggard in a jail cell on a recent evening, Robert Charles McDonald, convicted pedophile and self-proclaimed priest in a little-known Christian sect, seldom flashed the charm he used for years to collect donations for his church and charity.

McDonald, 77, was arrested July 17 on two charges of indecency with a child and is in the Harris County Jail without bail. If convicted, he could face life in prison because he has two previous felony convictions for sexual crimes against children and may be considered a habitual offender.

The arrest stunned people he had once helped, and it angered several business people who contributed time and money to the Consistory for Charity, a nonprofit organization McDonald said he has struggled financially to operate for about 10 years from a rundown building in the 5700 block of Harrisburg in the city's largely Hispanic East End.

Click here for full story.


August 20, 2001 A Familiar Pattern.

By Eileen McNamara, 7/22/2001

The Cardinal has no comment on what the court record confirms: He was told more than 10 years before the arrest of the Rev. John J. Geoghan that the priest was a suspected serial child molester.

The Cardinal has no comment on what his attorney acknowledges: He got a letter warning him about Geoghan in 1984 and transferred the priest to another parish, where he allegedly continued to prey on children for eight more years.

Geoghan, now defrocked, will go on trial in September for his alleged sexual assault of dozens of children, but will Cardinal Bernard F. Law be allowed to continue to play duck and cover indefinitely? Will no one require the head of the Archdiocese of Boston to explain how it was that the pastors, bishops, archbishops, and cardinal-archbishops who supervised Geoghan never confronted, or even suspected, his alleged exploitation of children in five different parishes across 28 years?

The Geoghan case, like the James R. Porter case in Fall River before it, and the Christopher Reardon case in Middleton after it, follows an all-too familiar pattern. The men who molest children are prosecuted eventually, but the powerful, private institution that harbored the pedophiles and covered up their crimes is never held publicly accountable.

Source: The Boston Globe

August 16, 2001 Trio arrested in New York.

Trio in NY arrested for kidnapping a child met online, and then drugging, raping, torturing, and attempting to choke the child to death. The victim who survived the one week ordeal managed to call for help with a nearby cellphone after being left unattended for a while.

We are urging all concerned citizens to write their Senators, Congressmen, or whomever so that justice may prevail. Already, one of those charged, Beth Loschin of 103 Lockwood Ave, in Farmingdale, NY can be released on bail if the $80,000 bail is paid.

If an example of justice is not made in the courts, these criminals may only receive a pat on the wrist. On the other hand, you have a young child who will have those horrible memories and emotional scars for the rest of her life.


August 15, 2001 Laws hinder child porn prosecution.

Foreign webmasters elude arrest

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Police in Indonesia and Russia said Thursday that prosecuting suspects in their countries linked to a Texas-based online child pornography ring will be difficult, due to loose laws governing the Internet and pornography.

Federal officials in Washington said Wednesday that they have arrested 100 subscribers to child pornography Web sites, which they said had 250,000 subscribers worldwide and grossed up to $1.4 million a month. Authorities called it the largest child-pornography business ever discovered in the United States.

The bulk of the material came from Indonesia and Russia, where officials believe webmasters operated the sites.

Indonesia has no laws banning online pornography, and activists there say cybercrime flourishes with the help of lazy policing.

"Indonesia is a heaven for child pornography," Ade Armando, of Indonesia's Anti-Pornography Society, said Thursday. "Sadly, it is completely unregulated here. You can do anything."

National police spokesman Maj. Gen. Didi Widayadi said officers would try to find Aries Dharmann and Michael Yamim – Indonesians who U.S. agents in the Texas case said helped operate the site. However, he said, without laws specifically banning child or other pornography on the Internet, prosecution would be difficult.

"We are still studying the legal aspects of the case," said Gen. Widayadi. "We do not yet have regulations governing this matter."

An Interior Ministry official in Moscow said that at least 10 Russian operators are being investigated in the case but that they are certain to get away with no more than two years in prison if convicted there.

Russian law does not distinguish between child and adult pornography and treats the production and distribution of both as minor crimes, said Dmitry Chepchugov, head of the Russian Interior Ministry's department for high technology crimes.

Russian police often complain about the legal chaos that has turned Russia into an international center of child pornography production.

"Unfortunately, Russia has turned into a world trash bin of child pornography," Mr. Chepchugov said in Moscow.

Indonesia has long banned non-Internet pornography, in line with traditions of modesty and Muslim conservatism. However, explicit videos are sold openly at street markets, and convictions of sellers are rare.

Things are even more lax when it comes to the regulation of the Internet.

"The law here is weak, and kids are vulnerable to exploitation," said Seto Mulyadi, chairman of Indonesia's national commission for children's rights.

Mr. Armando said many Web sites based in Indonesia depict children having sex. However, he said Indonesia appears to be a base for distribution, rather than production, and most of the sites show children who come from Vietnam, Thailand and China.

August 14, 2001 Catholic Church backs molestation bill.

The New York Times reports today that the Roman Catholic Church has announced its support for a bill that will "add priests and other members of the clergy to the list of people who must report suspected child sexual abuse to the authorities."

The bill is currently in the Massachusetts Legislature. The Associated Press reports this is a critical endorsement. According to the Times:

The move came after the disclosure that Cardinal Bernard F. Law had transferred a priest accused of child molestation to other parishes, where the priest was charged with molesting dozens more.

Lawmakers described the announcement as a significant change that would increase the chance for passage of the bill, which still exempts priests if they learn in the confessional about incidents of child abuse. The Archdiocese of Boston had earlier opposed the bill, saying it would violate the confidentiality between priest and parishioner.


August 9, 2001 Feds smash Internet child porn ring.

Investigation nets 100 arrests, including 12 in Washington

By CHRISTOPHER MARQUIS, The New York Times

WASHINGTON -- Federal authorities yesterday announced the results of a two-year investigation into a child pornography ring that produced the arrests of 100 people and dismantled what they described as a global Internet-based sales operation.

Law enforcement officials conducted 144 searches in 37 states after investigating a Texas company that offered subscribers access to materials and foreign-based Web sites featuring children in sexual acts with adults or other children, in addition to adult pornography.

The arrests included 12 suspects in Washington state, with "at least a couple in Seattle," Seattle police spokesman Clem Benton said. The company, Landslide Productions Inc. of Fort Worth, was highly profitable, taking in as much as $1.4 million in one especially lucrative month, officials said. It was the largest known commercial child pornography enterprise ever uncovered, they said.

Its Web site counted at least 250,000 subscribers -- many of them living overseas. Authorities have identified two of the children shown in commercial images as a brother and sister from Great Britain; they offered no further information about the location of other children who might have been depicted. Postal inspectors, working with Dallas police and new federally funded regional task forces specifically charged with protecting children against sex crimes over the Internet, conducted a sting operation through which they snared subscribers as they claimed materials they had ordered from Landslide. The crackdown led to the convictions of Thomas and Janice Reedy, the owners of Landslide, and resulted in the arrests of, among others, a registered child sex offender in Illinois and an employee of a psychiatric hospital in West Virginia that treats sexually abused children.

Most of the Washington arrests involved people who subscribed to the illegal child pornography sites, Benton said. But the local investigation also revealed other crimes outside of Internet-related offenses, which may lead to more arrests, he said.

"This is exciting because throughout Washington we have been able to uncover suspects and victims of other crimes that may have gone unnoticed, such as child molestation incidents, from being a part of this investigation," he said.

Officials said more specific information about local arrests under Operation Avalanche would be made public today.

Kenneth Weaver, the inspector general of the U.S. Postal Service, said that the Landslide enterprise may be "the tip of the iceberg" in a growing market for child pornography via the Internet.

But, he added, "I think the results of this investigation should send a clear message that it's taken very seriously, and hopefully, it's going to have a dramatic impact on those people who want to delve into this very vicious crime."

In a news conference yesterday announcing the arrests, Attorney General John Ashcroft warned individuals who exploit children that they cannot hide behind the seeming anonymity and borderless nature of cyberspace to commit crimes. Possession of child pornography is a federal offense punishable by up to five years in prison. The production and distribution of such materials carry even harsher penalties.

Authorities first focused on Landslide in 1997, shortly after Thomas and Janice Reedy incorporated the firm. Initially, the company offered explicit material involving mostly adults, investigators said, and Thomas Reedy told an FBI investigator that he did not provide access to images of children. But as the business grew, the Reedys derived more and more of their income by providing access to Web sites featuring children, authorities said. For $29.95 a month per site, subscribers gained access to Web sites that advertised themselves with such phrases as "Child Rape" or "Cyber Lolita." Authorities did not release the addresses of the actual sites.

The Reedys had a fee-sharing arrangement with foreign Webmasters who maintained the child pornography sites. According to testimony from their trial, the Reedys grossed about $5.7 million from subscribers and paid about 60 percent to the foreign Webmasters.

Five foreign Webmasters indicted with the Reedys have so far avoided arrest. Authorities have identified three of them: R.W. Kusuma and Hanny Ingganata of Indonesia and Boris Greenberg of Russia.

Investigators returned to Landslide in 1999 after receiving more than 250 complaints from computer users around the world that the company was advertising and distributing child pornography.

A Dallas police detective with a national reputation for investigating child abuse eventually identified two British children -- an 8-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother -- whose images were offered to Landslide subscribers. A British detective testified on their behalf at trial.

Thomas Reedy, 38, was convicted in December of 89 counts of possessing and distributing child pornography; he was sentenced this week to life in prison. His wife, who is 33, received a 14-year term.

After they seized control of Landslide in September 1999, federal and state authorities turned their attention to consumers. Postal inspectors worked with 30 federally funded task forces around the nation to identify and arrest would-be buyers. The local Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force includes members from police departments in Seattle, Tacoma and Des Moines; the King County Prosecutor's Office; the Pierce County Sheriff's Office and the Washington State Patrol.

Pretending the company was still active, investigators sent out electronic messages to determine who would buy the illegal materials. The authorities filled the orders for videotapes, CD-ROMs or floppy disks containing the child pornography, then arrested the recipients.


August 9, 2001 Children's X-Rated Book Is Troubling.

A new children's book about a teenage girl's sexual exploits is already causing a storm before it has even been released. Melvin Burgess's Lady: My Life as a Bitch has been attacked by parents groups because of its themes of drink, drugs and casual sex. But the author has defended the book describing it as a comic allegory about sex and life. The book, due out next month, is aimed at youngsters aged 14 and over, reports the Daily Mail. Nick Seaton, from the Campaign for Real Education, said: "Some teenagers will be shocked, but others will think this behaviour is something to be looked up to. Teenagers tend to look for things that are exciting and subversive and could see behaviour like this as 'cool'. "I would think this book is grossly unsuitable for anyone under the age of 18." Margaret Morrissey, of the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "I am very concerned we are allowing these kinds of books to be available to young adults. "We must not always assume that a 14-year-old is developed and sophisticated enough to read a book like this for what it is and take it as fantasy and make believe." Mr Burgess said: "It's a comic allegory about sex and life and all the important darker issues that some people can't handle teenagers reading about."

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August 9, 2001 The ACLU's speech exception to the pornography amendment.

THE ACLU is getting a lot of credit these days for defending our precious First Amendment right to scribble sadistic child pornography. Convicted child pornographer Brian Dalton recently pleaded guilty in an Ohio court to a second pandering offense. He later claimed his journal was intended to be used exclusively as his private masturbatory aid, winning the undying devotion of self-proclaimed civil libertarians.

Click here for full story.


August 9, 2001 Attorney General Prepared Remarks Operation Avalanche.

Today, we are announcing the results of Operation Avalanche -- a major initiative that combines the investigative resources of the Department of Justice, the Dallas Police Department and U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

More than merely another successfully prosecuted case, Operation Avalanche stands as a model of federal, state and local cooperation in the investigation, prosecution and most importantly prevention of the sexual exploitation of children.

Regrettably, the work of the Department of Justice to provide a safe America for children now extends well beyond the physical world into the electronic universe of cyberspace. Few would disagree that the world wide web offers unparalleled educational and recreational opportunities for our young people. But there are back alleys and dark corners of the internet where children can be exposed to inappropriate material or become susceptible to offenders who view them as sexual objects.

These offenders leverage the technology and anonymity of the internet to trade and produce child pornography, explore their sexual interest in children, and to identify youth susceptible to manipulation and exploitation.

Large numbers of young people are encountering sexual solicitations they did not want, sexual material they did not seek, and in the most serious cases, are targeted by offenders seeking children for sex. Today's internet has also become the new marketplace for child pornography. In their efforts to stop the electronic proliferation of these obscene materials, our law enforcement officers are often "outgunned and out-teched" by the profit-driven purveyors of child pornography.

To help make the internet a safe place for children to play and learn, the Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has been working to build a national network of state and local law enforcement agencies to respond to child pornography and cyber-enticement offenses. The cornerstone of our efforts is the National Center's CyberTipline which encourages citizens to report suspicious online activity to law enforcement. Under the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program, we are providing training, equipment, and funding to nearly 60 city, county and state law enforcement agencies. These agencies coordinate the efforts of more than 140 law enforcement agencies in 35 States. In just over two years, they have arrested more than 500 offenders, seized more than 900 computers, and reached thousands of children, teenagers, and parents with information about safe internet practices.

This successful coordination of all levels of law enforcement builds on the ongoing work of the Department of Justice, in addition to other federal agencies, in battling child pornography. The Federal Bureau of Investigation's Innocent Images National Initiative is a nation-wide effort to investigate those who traffick in child pornography and those who travel to commit sexual offenses against children. The United States Customs Service battles international child pornography, much of which originates in the United States. In addition, the legal experts in the Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section provide innovative, technology-based training for investigators on the federal, state and local levels.

Today, we are announcing the results of Operation Avalanche -- a first of its kind initiative involving unprecedented cooperation between local, state and federal law enforcement. Operation Avalanche combined the investigative resources of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program and U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Co-managed by the Dallas Police Department and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and coordinated through the ICAC Task Force Program, this operation offers a blueprint of how federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies can work together to protect children in cyberspace. In a few minutes, Chief Inspector Ken Weaver will provide you with some specific details of this initiative but before he does, I would like to recognize the co-managers of this investigation, Lieutenant Bill Walsh of the Dallas Police Department, and Postal Inspector Ray Smith and thank them for their hard work and leadership. In addition, investigators worked closely with attorneys from the Department of Justice's Criminal Division Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, who provided critical legal guidance at the undercover design stage and throughout the operation. We thank them, as well, for their dedication and expertise.

Understandably, today's announcement may alarm some parents. But I want to caution those with children who use the internet not to immediately yank the cord from the family computer. The Department of Justice is not saying that you should deprive your children of the educational and recreational opportunities of the internet. In this, as in so many other areas, exercising caution is the best course. Parents may want to talk with their children about possible dangers online, set out rules for their online activities, and encourage them to tell you when they become alarmed or disturbed by something they see while online.

Today's announcement emphasizes the resolve of the Department of Justice to make sure that cyberspace does not become a free-fire zone to target children. It serves notice that there are no free-rides on the information highway for traffickers of child pornography. To those in the sex industry who illegally prey on America's innocence, the Department of Justice will use every resource available to identify, investigate and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law. With the help and cooperation of parents, we will not only identify and prosecute those who seek to victimize children in cyberspace, but we will prevent future children from becoming victims as well.

Thank you. And now it is my pleasure to introduce Chief Postal Inspector Kenneth Weaver to provide the details on Operation Avalanche. Chief Inspector Weaver ...

Chris Huff
Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
US Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20530
(202) 514-3465
(202) 514-2504 fax

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