Sunday, June 21, 2009

Three Cleveland Men Charged with Having Child Porn

Three Cleveland men are charged with using the Internet to collect pornographic videos and photographs of children.

Christopher Jones, 34, was indicted on 100 counts. Prosecutors say he was sharing pornography from January through May 7, when officers with the Ohio Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force searched his East Side home. "Jones was downloading child pornography when officers arrived," prosecutor's spokesman Ryan Miday said.

David Lingenfelter, 21, was indicted on 41 counts. Prosecutors say he was sharing child pornography from his parents' house in Warrensville Heights from August through November 2008. March 6, the task force searched his house and confiscated his computer.

Sherief Ishac-Sorial, 27, of Cleveland, was indicted on 29 counts. Prosecutors say he was sharing child pornography from his West Side house from May through September 2008. His computer was confiscated Dec. 12.

The ICAC task force was created in 1999 by Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Bill Mason and includes members of local, state and federal law enforcement. It expanded statewide in 2003 to include 280 law enforcement agencies, at least one from each of Ohio's 88 counties.

Youth Minister William Wilson Arrested on Lewd Act with Child

A former church youth minister has been arrested and charged with sex crimes involving three people.

Multiple media outlets reported that 30-year-old William Ralph Wilson of Gaston was arrested Thursday on four charges.

Lexington County sheriff's deputies charged Wilson with two counts of committing a lewd act on a minor and two counts of exposing minors to sexually explicit materials.

Wilson is the former youth minister at Chapel of Redemption Church in West Columbia.

Three victims made complaints about Wilson to the department this week.

Wilson was being held at the Lexington County jail. It was unclear if he had an attorney.

John Bossert Jr & Others Arrested in Internet Sting

A Hereford Township man was one of three people apprehended in an Internet child predator sting operated by the Pennsylvania Attorney general's office.

John T. Bossert Jr., 37, of the 900 block of Gravel Pike, was arrested Friday and accused of having sexually explicit online conversations with an investigator posing as a 13-year-old girl.

Bossert was arrested at home by state police and charged with unlawful contact with a minor and related offenses. He was committed to Berks County Prison in lieu of $25,000 bail after arraignment before District Judge Michael G. Hartman. He later posted bail.

Also arrested in the sting were Randy L. Hart, 40, of Mount Carmel, Northumberland County, and Manpreet S. Nibber, 49, Burtonsville, Md.
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http://www.gantdaily.com/news/43/ARTICLE/54898/2009-06-20.html

Raymond 'Foxy' Gagnon Charged with Possession of Child Porn


Authorities spent Saturday at the home of a former Plattsburgh teacher arrested on allegations that he knowingly possessed child pornography.

Raymond "Foxy" Gagnon, who, for years, was an eighth-grade teacher at Stafford Middle School, was arraigned in federal court in Plattsburgh on Saturday. More recently, he wrote a column for the Press Republican and did sports commentary for a public access station.

According to an affidavit, Gagnon told investigators there were 25 pornographic videos and 100 pictures on his computer.

Police said Gagnon downloaded the images from a European Web site and visited the site every few days.

Gagnon told investigators he did it for "personal sexual gratification."

Jimmy Montano Charged with Sexual Exploitation of Child

A Clovis man is in jail following a reported child pornography raid at his home.

25-year-old Jimmy Montano is in the Curry County jail charged with sexual exploitation of children and manufacturing child pornography.

Investigators say they found child porn and materials to manufacture child porn on Montano's computer on Friday.

They say more charges are to come for Montano as they get more information from his hard drive.

He is being held on a $30 thousand cash bond.

He also was on probation for a first degree child abuse conviction.
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http://www.cnjonline.com/news/arrested-34164-sexual-exploitation.html

David Earls Receives Only 1-year Sentence for Raping 4-year-old


A woman who says she was raped by her father — the man now at the center of a controversy for the rape of a child in Pittsburg County — took her case to a national audience Friday with the hope he gets a longer prison sentence.

Through a satellite hookup in Tulsa on Friday morning, Denise Earls, 43, told CNN how she came to be raped by her father, David Harold Earls, when she was 8.

She was joined during the interview by state Rep. Mike Ritze, R-Broken Arrow, who has expressed outrage at the one-year prison sentence David Earls received last month in McAlester for the rape of a 4-year-old girl.

Ritze has also appeared on national TV in recent days, most notably the Bill O'Reilly show on Fox News, to vent his anger at the sentence and also to call for state authorities to investigate the case.

Ritze and state Rep. Mike Reynolds, R-Oklahoma City, have called for proceedings to oust Pittsburg County District Judge Thomas Bartheld, who accepted the plea bargain Earls, 64, received on May 13.

Adding intensity to the outrcy on Earls is that he will serve just three more months in a county jail and won't go to prison.

The one-year plea bargain took into account the time he was booked and held in jail since Sept. 24, 2008.

As a result, Earls is tentatively scheduled to be released Sept. 24, Pittsburg County jail administrator Missi Eldridge said.

Earls pleaded no contest last month to charges of first-degree rape and forcible sodomy.

As part of a plea bargain, he was sentenced to a year of incarceration, and 19 years of a 20-year sentence were suspended.

The plea bargain and the 4-year-old's pretrial court appearance in front of Earls triggered national and international outcries, even threats to District Attorney J.B. Miller, whose assistants agreed to the sentence.

On Friday afternoon, a bomb threat was called in to Bartheld's office, leading sheriff's deputies to evacuate the Pittsburg County Courthouse. No explosive device was found.

Prosecutors and the child's family had feared that the 4-year-old would freeze up during the planned closed-circuit testimony, Miller said. That, along with Earls' age and his terminal cancer, led to the plea bargain before the trial began.

Ritze said Denise Earls, who is not related to the 4-year-old girl, appeared on CNN on Friday with the hope that somehow her father would be punished with a longer prison sentence, "and also to make sure that what happened to her doesn't happen to someone else."

In a recent interview with The Oklahoman, Denise Earls called her father a "monster" who got a year sentence, while "I got a life sentence."

She has established a life with her husband, daughter and grandchildren and long ago separated from her father's family.

She knew nothing of her father's criminal case until her estranged mother called recently.

She said her father's sentence angers her.

"They have computers; they have all kinds of ways to determine that he has family members," she said. "You would have thought they would have tried to contact me to see if anything happened to me."

Denise Earls said the inappropriate touching began while she was living with her mother and grandmother in Blackwell. Her father was divorced from her mother when she was 1, she said, and she seldom heard from him.

In 1974 her father spent one night in the washroom behind the garage where she was living. She said that's where he raped her.

Her father told her that if she told anyone, she would no longer be allowed to live with her grandmother, she said, so she kept quiet.

"I was too afraid," she said. "My grandmother was my rock. My grandmother was my savior. She's the reason I'm a good person today."

Denise Earls said she confronted her father in 1995, after she'd been married many years.

"He said, 'I was drunk. I'm sorry. I don't remember,' " she said. "I said, 'I have vivid memories.' "

Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson has already weighed in on the allegations made by Denise Earls.

"My investigators have talked to this newly identified victim," he said.

"We're attempting to determine whether, in all likelihood, the statute of limitations has run on those offenses.

"But it would be additional information that if there were a trial of this person, Earls, that information may be admissible to show the propensity to commit this kind of crime."

Duane A Bault Arrested for Raping 11-year-old girl

A Fort Drum man living in Watertown was jailed without bail Thursday on allegations that over a two-year period he raped a girl under age 11, according to documents filed in Watertown City Court.

Duane A. Bault, 40, of 163 Breen Ave., is charged with predatory sexual assault against a child. As defined by state penal law, the charge involves committing first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act and first-degree aggravated sexual abuse against a child under age 13.

The court file indicates his conduct was upon a child under age 11 and occurred in the city between Aug. 13, 2004, and July 1, 2006.

The charge is an A-II felony, which, with a conviction, carries a possible prison sentence of up to life.

Joe Harvey Jr Arrested for Sexually Assaulting Infant


A man accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s infant in an unincorporated area near west suburban Montgomery was ordered held on $250,000 bond this week.

Joe P. Harvey, Jr., 27, of the 0-100 block of Marnel Road in Montgomery, was charged with one count of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, one count of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and one count of criminal sexual assault, according to a release from the Kendall County Sheriff’s office.

Harvey is accused of sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend’s baby, whose gender and age was not immediately available, on Thursday in his home, the release said.

Thursday afternoon, the child’s mother took the baby to Rush-Copley Medical Center in Aurora after noticing injuries, the release said. Hospital staff determined the baby had been sexually abused, the release said.

The Department of Children and Family Services and the sheriff’s department was contacted and, after interviewing the child’s mother, it was determined that Harvey had allegedly abused the child.

Harvey is being held on $250,000 bond in the Kendall County jail.
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http://cbs2chicago.com/local/montgomery.infant.assault.2.1053691.html

Paul Bradley Arrested for Nine Felony Sexual Assault Charges

Paul R. Bradley, 52, Clackamas, Ore., pleaded not guilty Monday to nine felony charges in connection with a sexual assault case involving a Wabash County, Ill. teen.

Bradley appeared in Wabash County Circuit Court Monday before Circuit Judge Paul W. Lamar, waiving his right to a preliminary hearing and formal arraignment. A trial date was set for 9 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8. He was represented Monday by Wabash County Public Defender James Lane.

Two pre-trial dates have been set: 2 p.m. July 20 and 11 a.m. Aug. 10. A final pre-trial hearing is scheduled at 11 a.m. Aug. 24.

The charges against Bradley include aggravated kidnapping inflicting harm, aggravated criminal sexual assault, indecent solicitation, child pornography, aggravated criminal sexual abuse of a victim younger than 17 years, traveling to meet a minor, solicitation to meet a child, unlawful restraint and child abduction.

Wabash County State’s Attorney Cassandra Goldman filed the charges following Bradley’s May 26 arrest Mt. Carmel Police Mike McWilliams and Art Kimmel.

Police found Bradley with the 15-year-old Wabash County male in a rental car parked in the 1100 block of Pear Street during a late night routine traffic stop.

Det. Sgt. Ryan Turner said investigation revealed Bradley was in town for an alleged rendezvous with the juvenile.

“We know for sure the Internet was used to make contact with each other in this case. We don’t know specifically what information was exchanged until we get the FBI analysis of the computers,” Mt. Carmel Police Chief Jeff Besing said after the arrest.

Local police are working with the FBI, Illinois State Police, and the Secretary of State’s office.

Goldman said the charges have been filed locally and would be prosecuted locally, but the investigation is ongoing. She could not say whether other charges would be filed in other places.

She said the allegations are that there was deceit and threat of force used in the matter.

Turner said Bradley took a flight to reach the area, but declined to specify which airport. He said the rental car had been processed for evidence and returned to the car agency. He did not say where Bradley rented the vehicle; only that the agency cooperated with authorities.


Turner said authorities processed a second “location” in Mt. Carmel which may be connected to the case. He did not elaborate.

Circuit Judge Stephen Sawyer set bond at $1 million, and Bradley remains in custody in Wabash County.

Datrick Simmons Arrested for Statutory Rape


Halifax County sheriff's deputies arrested a convicted sex offender Thursday for allegedly having sex with a 14-year-old girl.

Datrick Simmons, 30, of Roanoke Rapids, faces one charge of statutory rape.

He was being held in the Halifax County Jail under a $75,000 bond Friday. His first court date was set for July 15.

According to state Department of Correction records, Simmons has a 10-year-old conviction for taking indecent liberties with a minor in 1997.

Child Abuse Reports Increased in New York

The number of child abuse reports made to Child Protective Services in New York State increased by 6% from 2007 to 2008. There were 154,837 child abuse reports made statewide in 2007. Last year the number jumped to 163,808.

A few counties experienced a decrease. One of those was Albany County which experienced a 3% drop in reports of child abuse. Fulton County, on the other hand, saw a 22% jump. Other counties near Albany experienced an increase as well. Montgomery County reports went up by 11%, Rensselaer County by 8.5%, Saratoga County 8%, Schoharie County by 5%, Schenectady County by 3.5% and Greene County by 1%.

Fulton County now leads New York State in the number of child abuse reports per 1,000 population, with 20 per 1,000. Fulton County replaces Schenectady County which led the state in 2007 with 17 child abuse reports per 1,000.

It's difficult to say what is driving the increase in child abuse reports. Some people say the poor economy is causing more child abuse. But Fulton County only experienced a slight increase in unemployment between 2007 and 2008 according to New York State Labor Department statistics.

The factors that cause child abuse to increase and the factors that cause an increase in reporting are not necessarily the same. An increase in reporting does not necessarily mean that there is an increase in abuse. Raised awareness and new legislation are just two factors that may cause an increase in the number of reports. On average 2/3 of all reports are unfounded, therefore it is inaccurate to assume that the number of reports is synonymous with the number of actual cases of abuse.

According to Prevent Child Abuse New York, the risk factors and causes of abuse are immaturity and unrealistic expectations, unmet emotional needs, the stresses of child care, economic crisis, domestic violence, lack of parenting knowledge, difficulty in relationships, depression or other mental health problems, and drug or alcohol abuse.

From 2002 until 2006 the number of child abuse reports in New York State dropped. There were 153,646 reported cases in 2002 and 139,169 in 2005. In 2006 the numbers jumped to 158,860 and then fell again in 2007 to 154,837. While the increase from 2007 to 2008 was 6% statewide, the increase from 2005 to 2008 was 18%, a significant increase.

Statistics for 2009 are not yet available.