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September 2, 2000 Chicago: Sex Offender Gets 30 Years in Prison.

AURORA -- A 33-year old Aurora man was sentenced Friday to 30 years in prison for sexually assaulting two young boys on several occasions in 1999.

Joseph Greco III pleaded guilty to predatory criminal sexual assault before DuPage Judge Robert Anderson, who approved the sentence reached through a plea agreement with prosecutors. Greco has similar criminal cases pending in Kane and Cook Counties.

September 1, 2000 Chicago: Police save tot tied to car seat. 84-year-old foster mom leaves boy to go shopping.

By Darlene Gavron Stevens and Tom McCann, Chicago Tribune
Freelance writer Mary Wilds contributed to this report.

The heat and a squirmy toddler complicated 84-year-old foster mother Willie Haywood's trip to the store for bananas Tuesday.

Rather than lug the 22-month-old boy into a Chicago Heights supermarket, police said, Haywood tied his feet to his car seat and left him in the car with the windows open.

The child was uninjured, but Haywood's action led to a swift charge of child endangerment and renewed debate over the state's ability to recruit and monitor foster parents.

After the incident, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services removed the child and his 5-year-old sibling from Haywood's Ford Heights home, where they had been placed last November.

DCFS officials said they also will investigate how Haywood, who is not related to the children, was being monitored by Lutheran Child and Family Services, the agency hired to handle the case.

Child advocates said that while there should be no age limit to being a foster parent, the state should be extremely careful about its decisions.

Diane Redleaf, president of the National Coalition for Child Protection Reform and a Chicago child-welfare attorney for more than 16 years, charged that Illinois' foster-care system does not do enough to recruit younger foster parents.

"This woman made a horrible decision, but it's not healthy in any situation for a child to be matched with a parent that old," she said. "It's hardly long term. When the children get a few years older, they'll have to be moved again."

"And it's impossible for an older person to keep up with energetic kids."

Jerry Stermer, president of Voices for Illinois' Children, a non-profit child advocacy group, said the system has to scrutinize foster parents more carefully.

"There was an obvious failure here in making the tough call. Too often, caseworkers fail to tell older foster parents they don't have the energy anymore to cope with kids," Stermer said.

Haywood could get up to a year in jail for allegedly leaving the child with his feet tied by a cloth belt to keep him in his car seat, said Capt. Sam Angellotti, Chicago Heights Police Department spokesman.

The incident occurred on the same day a Harvey infant died after being left in a sweltering van for eight hours. Tyrelle Jones, 9 months, was taken to Heaven's Little Hands day-care center with his siblings, but the van driver told police he forgot to remove Tyrelle from the van.

Stermer said the two incidents were "painfully coincidental."

"But maybe it will teach some careless people out there that the care of any child is a sacred obligation," he said. "Hopefully this is the last one we hear about."

In the Chicago Heights incident, Haywood apparently tied the boy's feet because the car seat was too big for him, Angellotti said. Police rescued the boy after being flagged down by passersby who noticed the child in the Country Squire Supermarket parking lot.

Haywood returned to the car at the same time and was charged shortly afterward, Angellotti said.

The boy was examined at St. James Hospital and released.

"The child gave her a hug when she came out of lockup," Angellotti said.

Martha Rohlfing, spokeswoman for Lutheran Child and Family Services, said Haywood has been a foster mother with the agency since 1988 without any complaints against her.

"She's been a very good foster mother," Rohlfing said. "Unfortunately, she made a bad mistake."

There is no maximum age for being a foster parent, Rohlfing said; however, license renewal procedures include home evaluations and medical reports.

Haywood's last license renewal was two years ago, and her last supervisor visit was six months ago, she said. The woman also has been receiving monthly visits from a caseworker, she said.

On the last home visit, the supervisor assessed Haywood's "mental acuity and did not sense any problems," Rohlfing said.

Haywood on Friday contended that "I wasn't arrested, all [the police] did was sit me down and talk to me for a while."

Though she declined to comment specifically on the incident, Haywood said she had been a foster parent since 1976.

DCFS spokeswoman Audrey Finkel said the department does not compile information regarding the ages of foster parents.

But Rohlfing said it is not unusual for empty nesters or other older couples to become foster parents. Busy families with children may not be able to take on such a commitment, she added.

"I know many wonderful foster parents who are retired and do wonderful work with the children," she said.

September 1, 2000 Maryland: Sex Case Dismissed Because 'Victim' Was a Cop. Maryland Officials Appeal Court Ruling.

By Amy Worden, APBnews.com

FREDERICK, Md. -- The state attorney general is appealing a court decision to dismiss charges against a New Jersey man because the teenage girl he was accused of soliciting online was in fact an adult police officer.

Donald Taylor, 44, of Camden, N.J., was arrested by Maryland State Police last October and charged with a third-degree sex offense and solicitation of a minor using a computer following an investigation that involved a trooper portraying a 15-year-old girl in an Internet chat room.

Frederick County Circuit Court Judge Mary Ann Stepler threw out the case earlier this month, ruling there was no crime because no minor was involved.

Brought Teddy bear and condoms

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran this week called Stepler's decision "wrong" because Taylor had taken "substantial steps" toward committing a crime.

He said Taylor understood he was coming to Maryland to have sex with an underage girl named "Stephanie."

"He brought a Teddy bear and condoms, as the two had discussed, and came to the parking lot to meet her," Curran told APBnews.com. "Every substantial step was taken other than the sex act itself."

'The only way to do it'

Curran said that if the ruling stands, it could potentially harm future Internet crime investigations -- a fast-growing area of law enforcement -- in Maryland.

"We strongly believe this case merits an appeal," Curran said. "It's an important case because the judge's ruling may limit police ability to apprehend sexual predators. Other jurisdictions have held that a police officer can pose as a minor, and the perpetrator can still be punished for the intended crime."

He said such stings are the only way to catch sexual predators who stalk young people in Internet chat rooms. Setting up law enforcement officers in chat rooms "is the only way to do it," Curran said. "can't have a 13-year-old girl have sex with someone before we arrest them.

erts: Ruling unusual

Legal experts say the have not heard of any similar statutes being challenged elsewhere and doubt the circuit court ruling will set a national precedent.

"It would be out of step with strong, modern trends for legal impossibility,said Paul Robinson, a criminal law professor at Northwestern University. "You can't say he wasn't dangerous or didn't demonstrate his intent to commit a crime."

Maryland State Police spokesman Corp. Rob Moroney declined to comment on the specific case or the ruling, but said the cyber crime unit will "continue to make cases against child pornographers and online stalkers."

Taylor had an earlier conviction on molestation charges in Maryland, authorities said. "This wasn't just some voyeur," said Curran.

Maryland's Court of Special Appeals will hear the case within the next month, he said.

September 1, 2000 Washington DC: Lawmaker Vows to Fight Tax Ruling on Missing Kids. Parents Cannot Write Off Abducted Children.

By Amy Worden, APBnews.com

WASHINGTON -- A Minnesota congressman said today he will introduce legislation to reverse a recent Internal Revenue Service ruling denying a family the right to claim an annual exemption for a missing child.

The IRS advisory, released this week in response to a taxpayer's question, "denies basic tax relief to America's most vulnerable families," said Rep. Jim Ramstad.

"The IRS ruling is unbelievably cruel and mean-spirited," said Ramstad, a Republican and member of the House Ways and Means Committee. "On top of more pain and devastation than a family can bear, the IRS is now forcing a tax hike on the families of missing children."

IRS officials said the advisory released by an agency attorney earlier this week was a "non-binding" response to a taxpayer's query and not a formal ruling.

Issue not 'free from doubt'

The issue arose in April when a taxpayer asked whether an exemption could be claimed for a missing child for the 1999 tax year. The taxpayer also asked whether future exemptions could be claimed if the family maintained the child's room and spent money on a search.

In his memo, IRS attorney George Baker said a deduction was allowed for the year of the kidnapping but not in subsequent years. As the basis for his decision, he used a 1980 Tax Court case where the court ruled against a man who sought an exemption for a child who had been abducted by his wife.

But Baker acknowledged the issue was not "free from doubt" leaving open the possibility that future cases could be resolved differently.

"The facts and circumstances of cases can affect legal opinion, you see that throughout the tax system," one IRS official said. "This particular scenario may not apply to another case."

Many parents inquire

The notion that IRS might bend in other cases was little solace to parents who have suffered the emotional loss and now must face the often-overwhelming costs of a search.

"Parents spend more money on a child once they're gone than they do to maintain them at home," said Maureen Dabbagh, whose daughter, now 10, was kidnapped by her ex-husband eight years ago and taken to Saudi Arabia.

Dabbagh, president of the group P.A.R.E.N.T., which helps parents of abducted children taken abroad by a spouse, says parents routinely ask about tax deductions each spring.

"My understanding is you can't take deductions because they are physically not there," she said.

'The right thing to do'

Officials with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has helped support families in their battles against the IRS, applauded Ramstad's action.

"The situation requires a legislative fix," said Ernest Allen, the center's chief executive officer.

Allen said while he does not argue with the tax code, there is a "human dimension" to these cases that cannot be overlooked.

"The kids are not gone because parents did not want them there and not allowing them a deduction is like telling them their kids are gone," he said. "Tax laws did not envision these kinds of cases. Creating exemptions is the right thing to do."

August 31, 2000 UK News: Paedophile housed with children.

By Jim McLean, The Herald

SENIOR officials at North Lanarkshire Council have been called on to resign after they housed a sex offender in a homeless unit alongside mothers and young children.

Graham Campbell, 18, was awaiting trial for sexually assaulting a five-year-old child when social workers placed him in the unit in Coatbridge.

Four months later, on September 3, 1999, Campbell was accused of indecently assaulting another five-year-old girl in the hostel.

Two weeks ago, at Hamilton Sheriff Court, Campbell, of Maree Drive, Cumbernauld, admitted abusing the first youngster after luring her into his bed during a game of hide-and-seek. His mother was the girl's childminder.

He pleaded guilty to using lewd, indecent and libidinous practises towards the five-year-old at two houses in Motherwell between January 1 and January 22, 1999 - once at his mother's, and once at the girl's own house, while again the child was in his mother's care.

Campbell's plea of not guilty to a charge of indecently assaulting a five-year-old girl at the homeless unit in Coatbridge was accepted by the Crown.

A not guilty plea to a further charge of using lewd, libidinous, and indecent practices towards a three-year-old was accepted by the procurator-fiscal.

Campbell was placed on the sex offenders' register by Sheriff Joyce Powrie and released on bail pending reports.

In the wake of recent high profile anti-paedophile protests across the country, backed by a tabloid newspaper campaign and Scottish Executive moves towards a Children's Commissioner, child safety campaigners and politicians reacted with horror to the council's action.

Senior officials at North Lanarkshire Council who knew of Campbell's background before placing him in the homeless unit included chief executive Gavin Whitefield, the former director of housing, and the current social work director, Mr Jim Dickie.

Councillor Richard Lyle, the SNP group leader, said: "I am astounded and shocked by these revelations. Even though he was not at that stage on the sex offenders' register, why on earth was he placed to live among single mothers and children?

"For him, it was like a child being put in a chocolate factory. The temptations were enormous. Mr Dickie should review his position."

Mr Phil Gallie, Scottish Conservative Party home affairs spokesman, said: "I cannot believe, given the current climate surrounding the Sarah Payne case, that social workers would be so irresponsible."

Ms Anne Houston, director of Childline Scotland, said that for children's safety it had to be assumed that there was a risk that alleged sex offenders might offend again.

She added: "A child's safety is always paramount. That's why their safety must be considered first and they should not be put at risk from someone who might possibly harm them."

A spokeswoman for Children 1st said: "If known or alleged sex offenders are being housed in accommodation alongside vulnerable families, that must be urgently addressed."

Single mothers living in the Coatbridge unit and parents on a nearby housing estate voiced their anger last night.

One 24-year-old single mother with a six-month-old baby daughter, said: "If I had known that they were going to house this type of person here, then I would never have agreed to move here."

The council's head of social work, Mr Dickie, refused to comment.

But a council spokeswoman insisted the authority had followed national policy on housing sex offenders guided by the Sex Offenders Act, 1997 and the Crime and Disorder Act, 1997. She said: "It has to be remembered that, at the time, this person was not convicted of any offence and was not on the sex offenders' register."

August 30, 2000 New list widens Reardon case. After search, concerns for more children.

By Farah Stockman, Boston Globe Staff

ALEM - Christopher Reardon, a Middleton youth worker and alleged pedophile accused of victimizing more than two dozen boys, may have targeted even more children, based on additional lists found during a search of his computer and his home.

According to court documents unsealed yesterday, the computer search yielded an electronic chart of boys' names and intimate details of their bodies. There were also more than a thousand images of child pornography on the computer hard drive, which Reardon allegedly trafficked on the Internet.

Today, Reardon, 28, will appear in Essex County Superior Court for a hearing to determine if he should be granted bail. Though investigators think the evidence they found may add to the 29 alleged victims already identified, prosecutors were tight-lipped about whether Reardon could face more charges.

"We are continuing to investigate the new names, and some of the old ones as well," said Essex County prosecutor Robert Brennan.

Meanwhile, in a six-page motion arguing against Reardon's release, prosecutors described how Reardon allegedly recruited his victims, earned their trust, abused them, then used shame and loyalty to 'maintain the secret for longer than would seem possible.'

Currently, the 122-count indictment against Reardon marks what some have called the biggest child sex abuse case in state history. It includes rape charges involving four boys, indecent assault and battery on thirteen boys, and the distribution of pornographic material to nine boys. Some charges date back to 1995 with most victims 10 to 14 years old.

Reardon has pleaded not guilty to the charges. John Andrews, his defense lawyer, has argued that Reardon should be granted home detention under electronic monitoring until his trial. Andrews declined to comment on the additional allegations.

Reardon, a YMCA swim instructor, YMCA summer camp director and youth ministry coordinator at two Catholic churches, was arrested June 10 at a church picnic a day after a 14-year-old boy told police he had been molested.

An initial search of Reardon's church office and the River Street home he shared with his wife uncovered a computer printout listing about 250 boys' names and descriptions of their genitals. Police also seized a checklist which purportedly detailed the sexual encounters he had with boys, along with an array of sex toys, pornography, and a video of Reardon with a boy.

Based on that evidence, prosecutors identified 29 victims and used their statements to help build the case against Reardon. But the subsequent search of Reardon's computer on Aug. 2 turned up the chart with names of different children.

Essex District Attorney Kevin Burke also would not comment on the new evidence yesterday. But in a six-page motion filed in anticipation of today's hearing, prosecutors said Reardon positioned himself to gain access to 'countless' boys and was systematic in luring some of them into sexual encounters.

Reardon gradually lured boys to engage in sexual acts with him by preying on their natural curiosity about sex, prosecutors said. He would introduce them to magazines, computer-generated pornography and sex toys, according to the motion.

As Reardon gained some boys' trust, he used them to convince new victims 'to join the `fun,'' according to the motion.

'By instilling the boys with varying degrees of loyalty, complicity, shame, secrecy, and fear,' prosecutors said, 'Reardon maintained his secret for longer than would seem possible.'

August 30, 2000 Florida: Father Charged for Drugged Juice.

APBnews.com

SARASOTA, Fla. -- A man who concocted a drink from "psychedelic flowers" was charged with negligence after a baby sitter unwittingly served the drink to his two young sons.

The children began hallucinating after drinking the liquid, saying phrases like "see the frogs" and "see the presents". They were hospitalized for several days.

The boys' father, Thierry Cassagnol, surrendered to authorities Monday.

Angel's trumpet

Cassagnol, 42, boiled some angel's trumpet plant and mixed the broth with red Kool-Aid at his Sarasota home, police said. The 15-year-old baby sitter apparently found the concoction in the refrigerator and gave it to the two boys, ages 3 and 5, on Aug. 15.

Authorities say Cassagnol endangered his sons by leaving the drink in the refrigerator in a 12-ounce water bottle, near containers of soda, juice and water. He admitted making the concoction, according to an arrest report.

Angels' trumpet is a hallucinogenic and poisonous herb that can grow up to 5 feet tall. Possession is not illegal, but charges can be filed if it is used to create a drug or if children are endangered.

August 30, 2000 Indiana: Day-Care Owner Charged With Murder. Allegedly Beat 3-Month-Old to Death.

APBnews.com

CARMEL, Ind. -- The owner of an unlicensed home day-care center in this Indianapolis suburb was charged with murder in the death of a 3-month-old boy under her care.

An autopsy Tuesday showed the boy was beaten to death, suffering multiple injuries to his head, neck and buttocks, Hamilton County Prosecutor Sonia Leerkamp said.

Brenda Simpson also was charged with aggravated battery, battery and neglect of a dependent in an unrelated case from last year, Leerkamp said. Simpson was in the county jail late Tuesday.

Previous case

Authorities had previously declined to charge Simpson in the case of a 5-month-old girl in her care who allegedly was shaken and seriously injured, Leerkamp said.

"It's very tragic," Leerkamp told WTHR-TV. "I think it's the kind of case that a prosecutor hopes will not happen, where you have a situation that you second-guess yourself and wish you had filed the previous charges."

In the latest case, Simpson, 32, told police she found Damon Parker on Monday afternoon laying on his side in a playpen with blood coming from his nose, sheriff's Lt. Ray Robert said.

Investigation continues

State officials also will investigate Simpson's care of other children, said Andrew Stoner, spokesman for the Family and Social Services Administration.

Day-care providers in Indiana do not need licenses if they care for fewer than six unrelated children in their homes.

August 30, 2000 Washington: Two Percent of America's Children Have Parents Behind Bars.

By James Gordon Meek, APBnews.com

WASHINGTON -- A record 2 percent of the nation's children under 18 had a parent behind bars last year, according to research released today by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The BJS study estimated that more than 720,000 inmates were the parents of 1.5 million minor-age children in 1999. The number of children with incarcerated parents increased by a third since 1991.

The 1999 BJS study estimated that 7 percent of all black children and 2 percent of Hispanic children living in the U.S. had parents locked up.

"That's just a staggering statistic," said Jenny Gainsborough, a senior policy analyst at the Sentencing Project, a not-for-profit group focused on criminal justice alternatives.

Inmates from inner cities

She said the data underscore an even bigger societal issue -- inmates come largely from inner cities, where more families are being "interrupted" than ever before.

The BJS figures for last year are an estimate based on a 1997 survey of 14,000 state and 4,000 federal inmates compared with a previous study in 1991.

The BJS report showed that 60 percent of those inmates surveyed were incarcerated more than 100 miles from their last residence. Of the fathers, 90 percent said their minor children were living with their mothers; 53 percent of jailed mothers said their children were living with grandparents.

"We've lost sight of what it is we're trying to achieve," Gainsborough said. "It may seem like a really convenient short-term solution to send everybody to prison. But long-term, if you're disrupting families and disrupting communities, you're likely to be doing more harm."

More parents incarcerated

A majority of prisoners surveyed said they were parents, up 60 percent since 1991, which study author Christopher J. Mumola said is "keeping in step" with overall prison population growth in the past decade.

Almost half of the prisoners with children were black, according to the 1997 data; 29 percent were white and 19 percent Hispanic. Most of the parents were between the ages of 25 and 44.

"What is particularly shocking is the number of mothers in prison," said Gainsborough, pointing to the estimated 53,000 women with at least one minor child jailed in 1999 -- almost double the number since 1991. She attributed the jump to mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines that many states have implemented in recent years.

Most imprisoned for drug offenses

Still, 93 percent of the parents incarcerated in 1999 were male, Mumola said. Most of the male and female parents in prison were serving time for drug charges rather than violent offenses, he added.

"More than we're incarcerating more mothers, we're really just incarcerating more women," he said.

Stephen Ingley, executive director of the American Jail Association, a professional organization, agreed that female drug offenders are flooding an ill-equipped penal system as a result of thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing and increasing drug arrests and convictions.

"Jails and prisons have had to become things they never used to be," he said, as drug addicts and people suffering from mental illness are typically incarcerated rather than treated medically.

Inadequate facilities

The issue of jailed parents is becoming a distinct headache for corrections officials around the country, Ingley said. Most jails have not been adequately prepared to deal with so many women and so many inmates of both sexes with children they cannot care for once they are locked up.

"People in this business are starting to pay more attention to who we're incarcerating on the inside and who's being left behind, specifically family members," Ingley said.

August 30, 2000 Hong Kong: HK police criticised over missing boy.

BBC News

Yu Man-hon had no money and needs daily medication

An investigation has begun in Hong Kong after immigration officers handcuffed a mentally disabled teenager and sent him to mainland China because they could not confirm where he lived.

I'm heartbroken that my son is suffering 10 times more than me out there. He can't take care of himself. Yu Lai Wai-ling Yu Man-hon, who is 15-years old but has a mental age of two, went missing a week ago after he became separated from his mother while travelling on the Hong Kong underground.

He was turned up at the border crossing point from mainland China at Shenzhen, some 30km away, but was unable to tell Chinese immigration officers anything about himself - in particular that he lived in Hong Kong.

It is not clear how Man-hon could have crossed into China in the first place, as the areas around the checkpoints are fenced off and under heavy guard.

Chinese immigration officials say they had asked their Hong Kong counterparts to determine his identity but they were unable to do so.

Man-hon was released into the bussling city of Shenzhen

When Man-hon became agitated he was handcuffed and sent across the border into China where he was released in the city of Shenzhen.

He has not been seen since.

Man-hon, who was wearing a white T-shirt and white jeans when he went missing, was carrying no money and needs daily medication.

Mother's fears

Man-hon's mother, Yu Lai Wai-ling, who says she has not eaten or rested since her son went missing, has accused officials of making an "irreparable mistake".

Officials at the Lo Wu border post say they have launched an investigation.

"He's obviously mentally disabled and unable to express himself," she told the South China Morning Post.

"We're all very worried and everyone has been running around for the past few days. I'm heartbroken that my son is suffering 10 times more than me out there. He can't take care of himself."

Officers from Hong Kong's Missing Persons Bureau and the Shenzhen Public Security Bureau have mounted a rare joint operation to search for the boy, assisted by Man-hon's father who has travelled to the city.

Lacking compassion

The incident has revived criticism of Hong Kong's authorities over their treatment of people they suspect are illegal immigrants.

"Any person with minimal conscience would not have abandoned a child in Shenzhen."

Ho Hei-wah, Hong Kong Human Rights Commission Human rights campaigners have accused the authorities of lacking compassion for the boy and criticised officials for failing to bring in medical experts to examine him.

"What happened is terrible," said chairman of the Human Rights Commission, Ho Hei-wah, said.

"The Immigration Department has not treated the boy as a human being. Any person with minimal conscience would not have abandoned a child in Shenzhen, especially if he cannot express himself."

However, Hong Kong immigration officials say they had no reason to suspect Man-hon was suffering from mental problems as he had no papers on him.

They insist he was handcuffed when he was sent across the border into China to prevent him injuring himself or other passengers.

August 29, 2000 ND: Fargoan guilty in Internet sex case.

By Steven P. Wagner, The Forum

In Cass County's first Internet-related sex conviction, a 24-year-old Fargo man pleaded guilty Monday to corrupting a minor.

Matthew John Schrum entered an open plea in Cass County District Court for sexual contact with a 15-year-old Fargo girl. He is required to register as a convicted sex offender.

East Central District Judge Ralph Erickson ordered a presentence investigation and risk assessment of Schrum, who is free on $5,000 bail until his sentencing.

"It provides some closure" for the victim and her family, said Cass County States Attorney Wade Webb.

The girl told police she met Schrum in an Internet chat room in mid-February, communicated with him by computer and later on the phone, then agreed to meet him about 1:30 a.m. March 4.

She said they drove around in Fargo before ending up in a field, where the man assaulted her. He then drove her back to Fargo and dropped her off in the North Dakota State University area.

However, she didn't tell her parents or report the assault for several days.

Police tracked Schrum with help from a Fargo Internet provider.

Webb said the charge was based on the victim's testimony and a statement given by Schrum.

The girl told Schrum she was a minor and verbally objected to his sexual advances, while Schrum stated he thought she was an adult, Webb said.

The crime was difficult to solve because the two met over the Internet, Webb said. "They are more time consuming for Fargo police, who did a fine job," he said.

Schrum will be sentenced after the presentence investigation and risk assessment, which takes about six weeks.

The risk assessment includes oral and written tests to determine how likely Schrum is to commit another sex crime.

"It's certainly appropriate the defendant goes to prison," Webb said. "In general, I think someone who is convicted of a sex felony is a risk."

The maximum penalty for corruption of a minor is five years in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Webb said the state will recommend a three-year prison term for Schrum.

Mark Beauchene, Schrum's attorney, did not return a call requesting comment.

August 29, 2000 Conn: Man 'Haunted' Girl Into Sex, Cops Say.

By Richard Zitrin, APBnews.com

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. -- A 40-year-old man is accused of using e-mail, alcohol and drugs -- and the specter of ghosts -- to turn a 13-year-old girl into his sex slave, authorities said.

Wayne Francis manipulated the girl to have sex with him through a scheme that involved posing online as a police officer, a teenage boy and a pair of ghosts, assistant state's attorney Louis Luba said during Francis' appearance in court Monday.

Francis allegedly began his relationship with the girl, who lives on his street, earlier this year, when she was 12.

Hid face during sex

In addition to using alcohol and drugs to make her his sex slave, he brainwashed the girl by setting up an e-mail account for her and letting her use his computer to read messages he sent to her posing as different people persuading the girl to have sex with him, according to the prosecutor.

The girl allegedly believed she was having sex with one of her fictitious online pen pals, a teenager named Domenic, when she was actually having sex with Francis, Luba said. He covered his face with a bandanna when having sex with her in his home and had her convinced that he was the teenage boy.

Threatening spirits

Francis allegedly sent the girl e-mails he claimed were from two ghosts telling her that if she didn't have sex with Domenic, spirits would come and carry her off and harm her and her family, the prosecutor said.

He also allegedly pretended to be a state trooper and sent the girl e-mails telling her that police were setting up a sting to catch Domenic and that she should have sex with him so they could surprise and arrest him, Luba said.

Francis, who is married and has children, was arrested Sunday and charged with a number of crimes, including first-degree sexual assault, using a computer to entice a child into sexual activity, and impersonating a police officer. He is being held on $750,000 bond.

August 29, 2000 Ohio: Neighbor Accused of Killing Girl, Raping Another. 7-Year-Old Girl Snatched from Bed, Found Dead. Neighbor Charged with Murder.

By Frances Ann Burns, APBnews.com

MARION, Ohio (APBnews.com) - A local man has been charged with killing the daughter of close friends after allegedly abducting the 7-year-old girl from the bedroom where she was sleeping with her sister.

Barry Satta, 36, was arrested at about 9 p.m. Monday, eight hours after a bicyclist found Bobbie Jo Barry's body along a country road. Police said the body was dumped four miles from the place where the girl disappeared and half a mile from Satta's home.

Bobbie Jo disappeared early Sunday from a house where 12 members of her family were staying. Her sister, Misty, woke her father shortly after 7 a.m., telling him she could not find her sister.

Police said the abduction took place between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.

Muddy footprints

The victim's father, Max Barry, found muddy footprints in a bathroom and near the bed where the two girls had been sleeping.

Investigators are awaiting the results of an autopsy to determine the cause of death, a police spokesman said.

Satta was scheduled for arraignment and a bail hearing today on charges of aggravated murder and aggravated burglary.

August 29, 2000 California: FBI Says Man Used Internet to Lure Girl.

By Josh Meyer, LA Times Staff Writer

In a chilling reminder of the dangers of the Internet, the FBI said Monday that it has arrested a Long Beach man on suspicion of traveling to Georgia to get a 15-year-old girl he met online, flying her to Los Angeles and spending a week in a motel having sex with her.

Michael Glover, 43, had bought a one-way plane ticket for the girl, who appeared to go willingly after months of exchanging daily messages with him, according to an FBI affidavit.

"It's definitely disturbing," said FBI spokeswoman Cheryl Mimura in >Los Angeles. "She's only 15 years old. Her family didn't even know."

FBI agents arrested Glover on Thursday, one day after finding the girl in a Motel 6 in Santa Fe Springs. The two had been there since the previous Friday, authorities said.

Glover, who works for a paralegal company, is expected to make a court appearance today to determine if he should be held in custody or freed on bail until a Sept. 11 preliminary hearing.

The complaint charges Glover with two counts of transporting a minor across state lines with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. He faces a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted on both counts.

Authorities said the allegations underscore a disturbing trend in which adults have taken to the chat rooms of cyberspace to find young victims.

One Seattle-based Internet company executive, Patrick Naughton, was arrested a year ago as he approached a woman who he thought was a 13-year-old he had met in a chat room called "dad&daughtersex."

The woman, who met him on the Santa Monica Pier, was a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy. Naughton pleaded guilty to crossing state lines to have sex with a minor. In an unusual plea arrangement, he agreed to design computer programs to help authorities trap Internet predators.

In the Glover case, FBI Special Agent Timothy Stanislawski described the suspect's alleged relationship with the girl in an affidavit. According to the document:

Glover met the girl in April in an America Online chat room.

Soon, he mailed her a pager, and they began sending text messages to each other daily.

On Aug. 17 or 18, Glover flew to Birmingham, Ala., rented a car and drove to a ballpark near Rex, Ga. There, he met the girl, her sister and an unidentified male.

Glover told the girl's sister "that he was not taking the victim away, but the victim was going of her own free will," the affidavit said.

The victim told FBI agents that she knew Glover was coming to meet her with a one-way ticket to California.

She said Glover seemed surprised at how young she was.

"The victim told Glover that she was 15 years old when they met," the affidavit states. "Glover's response was, 'Oh God.' " The FBI would not say what age, if any, the girl had claimed to be.

Nevertheless, the girl told FBI agents, Glover then drove "rapidly" from Atlanta to Birmingham, avoiding the larger airport "because Glover was concerned that the police would be looking for the victim at the Atlanta airport," the affidavit said.

Meanwhile, the girl's sister told her parents what had happened, and they called police. FBI agents also interviewed Mayda German, who worked with Glover at Advanced Legal Services in Long Beach.

German told authorities that she and Glover shared a computer and that she had seen printouts of his e-mail messages. "They consist of 'love talk,' including lots of 'I love you's' and the like," the affidavit states. German said that Glover had been communicating in chat rooms with at least four girls who were between 17 and 20, and that she had talked on the phone with two of them, according to the affidavit. Authorities seized the computer after Glover consented to a search.

August 28, 2000 NH: Police say increase in Internet use has a dark side.

Foster's Online

NEWTON, N.H. (AP) - There's a dark side to a recent study showing that more than 75 percent of New Hampshire households now are online, according to police who say the technology is putting more children in danger of sexual assault.

In Newton, police have investigated three cases of child sexual assault in the last month - all three involved suspects who met their victims through the Internet.

"It's like we've been hit by lightning," said Newton Police Chief Richard Labell.

But state officials say Newton is far from alone.

"Newton definitely was not hit by lightning," said Lt. David Eastman, unit commander of the State Police Major Crime unit in Concord.

The rapidly advancing technology allows perpetrators to come "right into their living rooms," he said, and has left both lawmakers and police behind the eight ball.

"Laws have not kept pace with technology," he said. "The statutes need to catch up."

While smaller police departments may have some catching up to do, several state agencies offer help.

The State Police Crime Lab collects evidence from suspects' computers and has software that can track items deleted from computer files. And the state is part of one of 30 Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces set up around the country to investigate such crimes.

Portsmouth police Lt. Robert Carbone directs the task force that provides federal funds and training for New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine law enforcement agencies. The group has undercover operations in the three states that are actively investigating cases.

"The computer opens another dark alley," Carbone said. "There are enough complaints made so that we are reacting to suspicious activity and Web sites," rather than merely staking out chat rooms and trolling for predators, Carbone said.

Carbone and other officials say parents need to monitor their children's computer use and know to whom they are speaking and what's being said.

"It's like the old adage," Eastman said. "If Johnny's in the corner being quiet, it could be because Johnny's getting into trouble."

August 28, 2000 California: Cop Charged in Sex Assaults on 2 Girls. Met One Victim Online, Calif. Officials Say.

By Randy Dotinga, APBnews.com

ADELANTO, Calif. -- A Southern California police officer is facing allegations that he sexually assaulted two girls, including one he met on the Internet.

Walter Petti, 33, turned himself in on Friday, a week after a judge issued a warrant for his arrest in connection with a 14-year-old girl's allegations, said San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department spokesman Chip Patterson. At the time, Petti was on bail in connection with an alleged April 26 attack on a 17-year-old girl.

Petti is on administrative leave from his job with the police department of Adelanto, a fast-growing town of about 15,000 people, 65 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

'We were seeking him'

In the first incident in April, Petti met the 17-year-old victim online and invited her to his home in Apple Valley, Patterson said. Petti has been charged with several offenses, including statutory rape and rape by force or intimidation.

After media reports about that arrest, a 14-year-old came forward this month, Patterson said. Investigators then began to search for him. He faces additional charges of molestation.

"It wasn't a manhunt or anything like that, but we were seeking him," Patterson said.

Petti eluded authorities for a week but called the Adelanto Police Department on Friday and gave himself in, Patterson said. Petti is being held in county jail on $250,000 bail.

August 27, 2000 Washington State: Insurers balk at big DSHS claims.

By Eric Nalder, Seattle Times staff reporter

The state of Washington's insurers are threatening not to pay their full portion from two record-breaking lawsuits, citing among other things the state's failure to appeal one of the cases on time.

If the insurance companies follow through and succeed - a real possibility, outside experts say - taxpayers would be stuck with an additional $10 million tab, twice what the state expected to pay.

The insurers' objections are outlined in letters obtained by The Seattle Times through the state's public-records law.

The cases in dispute were both filed against the state Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), and both have become notorious over the past year:

In March, a jury decided that DSHS caseworkers had allowed the operator of a state-licensed home in Kitsap County to sexually and physically abuse three developmentally disabled men. Damon Beckman, Eric Busch and Bill Coulter won the largest jury verdict ever against the state: $17.8 million.

Attorney General Christine Gregoire's office promised to appeal, but missed the deadline by 10 days after a paperwork snafu. Last week, the state Court of Appeals ordered the state to pay up. With interest, the total now owed is $18.5 million.

In July, the state agreed to pay $8.8 million to Linda David, a woman who was allegedly held captive on a sailboat and beaten by her husband for more than a decade, even as he was paid by the state as her caretaker. She is permanently disabled as a result of her injuries, and the payment is the largest ever to a single individual by the state.

Although both cases were publicity nightmares for state officials, they said on Friday that despite the threats, they expect the insurers to pay their share: about two-thirds of the payouts. The state's policy covers claims in excess of $5 million.

But in letters to the state Division of Risk Management, Seattle attorney John Jenkel, representing the six insurance companies, contested his clients' responsibility to pay. He questioned errors in the so-called Beckman case and the timing of injuries in the David case.

Two letters on the Beckman case contained the most threatening language. Jenkel cited the failure to appeal on time, the inclusion of punitive damages, the misconduct of state caseworkers and the state's failure to let the insurers know about the case until a year after the suit was filed.

The insurers' share of the Beckman verdict would be about $13.5 million and rising, because of $5,800-a-day interest. The punitive-damages portion is $8 million.

The insurers' share of the David case would be $3.8 million.

Timing issues in Davis case

In four letters regarding that case, Jenkel cited the fact that some of David's injuries occurred in the 1980s - before the state had insurance. The state bought the policy in 1992 and it was retroactive only to July 1, 1990.

Jenkel didn't explain how the timing of David's injuries would be sorted out, since there was no trial. When David was rescued from the boat in Everett by police, she was covered with permanent welts, her limbs had been repeatedly shattered and she was brain-damaged.

Jenkel declined to discuss details of his letters to the state, saying: "I can't really comment on something that could be the subject of litigation."

State officials not worried

Betty Reed, head of the Risk Management office, said she is confident the state's policy covers the claims and they will be paid.

"It is not at all unusual for an insurance company to issue these letters..." she said. "They are pretty routine in the insurance industry."
Other state officials also downplayed the threat.

"They like to be cautious, and try to avoid paying if they can," said DSHS Secretary Dennis Braddock. "I wouldn't be alarmed."

"We believe there is coverage," said Fred Olson, a spokesman for Gregoire. "These letters are not uncommon. With cases like this, and such high stakes, you can expect something like this."

However, Reed acknowledged, this is the first time insurers have indicated a reluctance to pay on a claim against the state.

And two prominent insurance lawyers familiar with the policy and with Jenkel said the officials are underestimating the threat.

"I don't think this is posturing by the underwriters," said Pat LePley of Bellevue, after reading the letters. "There could be a serious problem. I'd be worried if I were the state."

"On a scale of 1 to 10, it's a 9.5, based on these letters, that the insurer is going to deny coverage," said Rick Beal of Seattle. "I smell a lawsuit coming between the state and one or more of its insurers."

LePley is former national chairman of the Association of Trial Lawyers insurance-law section. Beal handles insurance disputes for some of the largest commercial policy-holders in the area and has 21 years of experience.

Supreme Court may hear case

Reed said the state is still preparing its claim in the David case. In the Beckman case, Gregoire is mulling whether to ask the state Supreme Court for another chance to appeal. If the high court were to overturn the appeals court, the case could go on for two more years. Otherwise, the state must put up the money immediately and seek reimbursement from the insurers.

At the time of the David and Beckman cases, six companies in England and the United States insured the state for any single loss over $5 million, and any aggregate of small claims over $22.5 million. The policy was renewed on July 1, changing some of the terms, including an increase in the aggregate to $35 million.

The companies involved in the David and Beckman cases include: Zurich Specialties London Ltd., Greling-Konzern General Insurance Co., St. Paul Reinsurance Co. Ltd. and CNA Reinsurance Co. Ltd., all of London; Lexington Insurance Co. of Delaware, and New Hampshire Insurance Co.

The annual premium is $1.6 million.

The state pays the first $5 million of any claim out of a self-insurance fund. If all went as the state would expect, the state's total bill in Beckman and David would be $10 million and the insurers would pay $17.3 million.

Insurers say they weren't told Jenkel's toughest letter was his last one in the Beckman case, dated July 21, which he sent to the state's broker, Global Financial and Executive Risks of London, in response to questions the broker raised about a letter to Reed.

Jenkel complained that the Attorney General's Office didn't inform the insurance companies about the Beckman lawsuit until more than a year after it was filed - and just weeks before a May 1999 trial was set to begin. The trial judge had already found the state negligent, by summary judgment.

The trial was postponed until February for scheduling reasons, but Jenkel wrote that the failure to notify insurers still hampered the insurance companies' ability to participate in the defense. The policy requires that they be given a chance to participate.

Court records and internal memos show the Beckman case went badly for the state before and during the six-week trial, which ended in March. In his letter, Jenkel placed some blame for the bad results on the state's attorneys.

Before trial, for instance, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Brian Tollefson permitted punitive damages - a rarity in this state - by allowing the jury to consider civil-rights damages under federal law. Jenkel speculated in his letter that the state might have waived its immunity from punitive damages by failing to make proper arguments in court.

During trial, two assistant attorneys general bickered openly, according to documents, and the most damning evidence against the state were the state's own documents and an investigation done by the Attorney General's Office.

Insurers audited state papers

After the stunning March 24 verdict, Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Freimund tried to put the best spin on it in an e-mail to the staff, saying it happened "despite the supreme efforts of our lawyers."

But in London, the insurers immediately asked for an audit of the state's claim-handling records. The primary purpose of the April 18 audit was to prepare for a renewal of the policy, which occurred on July 1, Reed said. But the Beckman case certainly came up.

"The primary focus of the audit was to review and evaluate the claim-handling procedures, claim operation, and discuss the recent verdict rendered in the Damon Beckman litigation," wrote the auditor, Michael Cortese of AIG Technical Services Inc., in New York.

Fallout from appeals snafu

While the audit was going on, another problem was brewing: the failure to appeal.

The plaintiffs' attorneys had delivered a notice to the Attorney General's Office on April 4 announcing that the trial judge would sign a document on April 14 starting the clock running on the state's 30-day deadline to file an appeal. The notice was stamped "Received," but sat for six weeks unnoticed in an assistant attorney general's office. The state missed the deadline in May by 10 days.

The mistake was made public in mid-June. On July 5, Jenkel sent his first letter warning the state that it might not cover the Beckman verdict. He assured the state he didn't want "a climate of adversity" but said the insurers would investigate the state's conduct of the case.

On July 21, Jenkel got more specific. He said the failure by Gregoire's office to appeal the Beckman case on time deprived the insurance companies of their own right to appeal. It "further constitutes a failure by the insured to mitigate damages and avoid the consequences of the adverse judgment," he wrote.

"The assertion by the insured that it intended and was prepared to appeal the jury's verdict was reasonably relied upon by the Underwriters," Jenkel wrote.

In addition, Jenkel said the $8 million in punitive damages awarded by the jury is not covered because the policy doesn't cover damages resulting from what the jury found was "deliberate indifference" of state caseworkers. It covers only damages that are "unexpected and unintended."

"Punitive damages attributable to 'deliberate indifference' can not reasonably be demonstrated by the State to have been unexpected and unintended," he wrote.

Reed said Friday that she has received no further communications from Jenkel, though he was consulted recently on the release of documents to The Times. Last month, the newspaper had requested all communications between the state and its insurers regarding the Beckman and David cases. The state refused to release the records at first, but relented Friday because of requirements in state law.

The state has filed only one claim over $5 million with the insurance companies since the policy was purchased, Reed said. That was for a 1999 verdict of $6.35 million against the Department of Corrections, and the insurers covered the excess $1.35 million, she said.

Reed said she is confident the same will happen in these cases.

"We believe that there is broad coverage. If it is the subject of some future dispute, we'll go there."

August 24, 2000 Cambridge: Curley family awarded $328M in lawsuit against boy's killers.

By Ralph Ranalli, Boston Globe Correspondent

CAMBRIDGE - A Middlesex County jury yesterday awarded the family of Jeffrey Curley, the 10-year-old Cambridge boy raped and smothered by two men, a stunning $328 million in their wrongful death suit against the boy's killers.

In practical terms, the award is little more than a moral victory, since neither of the men convicted of the murder, Salvatore Sicari and Charles Jaynes, has any assets to speak of, the Curley family's lawyer said.

Still, as probably the largest wrongful death award ever in the United States in the murder of a child, Cambridge lawyer Lawrence Frisoli said, it sends an "important" message to other pedophiles.

"This is a measuring stick by which to judge people who rape kids and get caught," Frisoli said. "We can't stop pedophiles from raping children, but we can make it harder on them."

The Curley family, which spent an emotionally wrenching day on the witness stand Tuesday testifying about how they have dealt with their son's murder,was not in the courtroom for the verdict and declined comment afterward.

But Frisoli said they were "grateful" to the jury for the symbolic gesture and were "ready to fight on" in their $200 million federal lawsuit against the North American Man/Boy Love Association, a group that the family says incited and nurtured Jaynes's obsession with Jeffrey Curley.

The scene in the courtroom as the verdict was read was surreal, given the magnitude of the award. The defendants were not in the courtroom. And Jaynes's lawyer - who was told by his client to essentially offer no meaningful defense in order to "make it easier" on the Curley family - actually praised the verdict.

"It was a statement to deter future conduct by others," lawyer Robert Bonsignore of Medford said of the jury award. "This is an example of how the justice system can effect positive societal change."

Bonsignore, who accepted a court appointment to the case from Middlesex Superior Court Judge Allen van Gestel to represent Jaynes's interests, refused attorney compensation. Sicari, who has appealed his first-degree murder conviction, essentially ignored the civil case.

Most of the jurors left through a side entrance of the courthouse without commenting, but one female juror stopped long enough to describe the verdict as "self-explanatory," given the horrifying testimony and evidence they saw during the two-day trial.

Jurors heard how Sicari and Jaynes lured the boy into their car with the promise of a new bike, tried to molest him, then smothered him by stuffing a gasoline-soaked rag into his mouth and sitting on him after he fought their advances.

They then took the boy to New Hampshire, had sex with his lifeless body, and then dumped it in a river in Maine, police witnesses said.

Jurors were shown the 50-gallon storage container Curley's body was stuffed into and an underwater police videotape of the container being recovered from the river bottom.

"I'm sure people can use their own imaginations about why we came up with the decision we did," said the juror, who asked not to be identified.

The jury awarded Robert and Barbara Curley and their surviving sons, Robert Jr., 22, and Shaun, 20, a total of $128 million for pain and suffering and loss of consortium, and $200 million in punitive damages.

Technically, Jaynes, 25, of Brockton, and Sicari, 24, of Cambridge, now owe the Curley's $164 million each, but neither has any money, Frisoli said. Both are serving life terms, although Jaynes will eventually be eligible for parole on his second-degree murder conviction.

"There is no money to get," the family's lawyer said. The real importance of the verdict, he said, will be its effect on the federal lawsuit.

Frisoli said the family cannot stop NAMBLA from advocating for changes in the laws governing sex with children, but will now press in federal court for an injunction barring NAMBLA from "telling people how to get around the laws" protecting children from pornography and sexual assault.

The large damage award is important, he said, because it "quantifies the family's loss" for the federal lawsuit. Frisoli said the Curleys now hope that a large award against NAMBLA in federal court will effectively shut down the organization in the same way abortion rights groups forced the founder of Operation Rescue into bankrupcty with civil damage awards.

Telephone calls to a NAMBLA answering service in New York City went unanswered yesterday. A recording described the group as an organization that "speaks out against societal oppression and celebrates the joy of men and boys in love," and is "serious about empowering all people to love those to whom their hearts lead."

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