Tuesday, June 23, 2009

5-year-old Dies from Blunt Force Trauma by Christopher Mack

A preliminary autopsy report reveals 5-year-old Sincear Kirven of Mexia died of blunt force trauma.

Arrest warrant affidavits state that the boy was beaten to death Sunday by his uncle, who struck the boy and his 3-year-old brother repeatedly with a belt.

Christopher Mack, 22, was arrested Monday in Limestone County, and is being held in jail there on charges of capital murder and aggravated assault in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

Andrea Shante Thomas, 24, the woman with whom Mack was living, also was arrested on those charges Monday, and is being held in the McLennan County Jail in lieu of $525,000 bail.

Sincear, his 4-year-old and 3-year-old brothers, and 7-year-old sister were staying with their uncle, who was visiting his girlfriend, Thomas, at her apartment on 1708 E. Crest Drive in Lacy-Lakeview, the affidavit states.

Marissa Gonzales, a spokeswoman with Child Protective Services, said the four children live in Mexia with their mother, Brandi Mack, and their great-grandmother.

After the beatings, CPS officials placed the three remaining children in foster care until a hearing is set to determine otherwise, Gonzales said.

According to Limestone County court records, Mack was convicted in March on a charge of abandoning/endangering a child and evading arrest. He was sentenced to probation, records show.

Just before midnight Sunday, Lacy-Lakeview police were dispatched to Providence Health Center in connection with the alleged beatings.

Mack had driven Sincear to the hospital, and told doctors that the boy collapsed in the apartment.

The affidavit states Sincear had “extensive visible injuries” including “bruises, abrasions and lacerations to his head, arms, front and back torso and legs.” The injured child was brought to the hospital by another family member, the affidavit states, and was said to have suffered similar injuries.

Police later learned from talking with witnesses that Mack had repeatedly beaten the boys with a belt. The affidavit states that Sincear was beaten until “he passed out and was not moving.”

According to the affidavits, Thomas was present at the time of the beatings, and did nothing to stop it, call the police or seek medical attention for the boys.

Medical staff told police that Sincear had been dead about an hour at the time when he was brought in by his uncle. The injured child has been treated for his injuries and released from the hospital, according to a news release issued today by the Lacy-Lakeview Police Department.

It is unclear why Mack, who is reportedly from Mexia, and his nephews were staying in Lacy-Lakeview. The news release states that Mack was watching the boys for the Mexia-based family.

An autopsy has been ordered on Sincear’s body.

Officer Mark Benton Arrested on Sexual Abuse Charges


Oregon State Police arrested an Athena police officer Monday on charges of sex crimes.

Athena Police Officer Mark Benton Ashcraft is in the Umatilla County Jail on charges of third-degree sodomy, second-degree sexual abuse and first-degree online sexual corruption of a child. The first two charges are Class C felonies in Oregon and the last is a Class B felony. Ashcraft has jail bonds totalling $22,500.

According to the Oregon Revised Statute, the charge of first-degree online sexual corruption means a defendant reasonably believes the victim to be under 16 years of age and "intentionally takes a substantial step toward physically meeting with or encountering the child. That step includes arranging a place and time to meet. The crime is punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine up to $250,000.

Dyann Swanson, Athena city recorder, said city officials are concerned about the matter, but it's also important to keep in mind Ashcraft is only a suspect at this time.

Ashcraft was a police officer in Pilot Rock for nine years before the smaller city of Athena hired him in December 2007. Swanson said while he was with Athena he had been a good employee.

"He came with a really great record," Swanson said.

Pilot Rock Mayor Virginia Carnes declined to comment on the case.

Lt. Greg Sherman with the Oregon State Police in Pendleton said Umatilla County District Attorney Dean Gushwa was handling all inquiries about the arrest.
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http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/cop_arraigned_on_sex_abuse_all.html

Russell Christie III Sentenced to 90 years for Distributing Child Porn

When Russell Christie III was convicted last November of moderating and posting images to website that distributed child pornography, he was facing a 30-year prison term.

But today, after listening to testimony from a woman who said she had been molested by the former Sussex County school bus driver for nearly a decade when she was a child, a federal judge in Newark tripled the sentence, ordering Christie to serve 90 years behind bars.

In imposing the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ackerman said he wanted to make sure Christie would never harm another child and also send a message to others who would try to sexually abuse or exploit a child.

Ackerman said he was mindful not only of the abuse the woman said she had endured, but also of the children depicted in the images Christie, 51, helped distribute around the world.

"The defendant's cheap thrill came at a considerable cost," Ackerman said. "The thousands of nameless children that appear in his images now strive to have a semblance of life."

Christie, who also worked at the Green Valley Beach Campground in Newton, was arrested in 2006 and charged with moderating a website that trafficked in child pornography. Prosecutors say the site had several hundred members worldwide.

He was convicted late last year and under federal sentencing guidelines, faced 30 years in prison.

That was until the woman, identified by prosecutors as "Victim 1," was allowed to testify today. Prosecutors maintained that that woman's testimony would establish a pattern of behavior that would warrant a life sentence for Christie.

The woman, now 28, said her encounters with Christie began when she was 9 and lived next to the campground. She said he would invite her to his home to play video games - invitations, she said, that at the time seemed innocent.

But the video game sessions soon turned to fondling, she said. By the time she was 12, Christie was plying her with alcohol and drugs in order to have sex with her and to take nude photographs of her, she said.

When her contact with him ended when she was 19, the woman said, she was heroin junkie who would travel to Newark and Paterson to buy drugs with money and transportation Christie provided in exchange for sex, she said.

"He turned me into a drug addict - a lot of hurt, a lot of pain," said the woman, who broke down several times on the witness stand. "It has destroyed any relationship that I could have with any man."

Ackerman overruled arguments by defense attorneys that Christie was never convicted for having sex with an underage victim, but rather for possessing and distributing child pornography, and making 2,500 posts to the website between October 2005 and July 2006. The posts, authorities said, depicted images and stories of children engaged in sexual acts with adults.

The judge said Christie was a unique convict, who was not just a mere voyeur of downloadable images, but also acted out the sexual deviance he was viewing.

"This court has a solemn duty, not only in dealing fairly with Mr. Christie, but in dealing fairly with the testimony of a young woman who obviously went through things that she'd rather forget about," Ackerman said, glaring at Christie and pointing his finger at him. "I will not be blind to the severe misconduct that appears before me today."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee Vartan said that without the woman's testimony, Christie would have been sentenced to a maximum of 30 years. Her story, Vartan said, established for the court a pattern of sexual abuse and exploitation against a minor that the judge was able to consider when imposing sentence.

Under cross-examination by defense attorney Lorraine Gauli-Rufo, the woman admitted she never told anyone about the alleged abuse. Gauli-Rufo also tried to strike at her credibility based on her history of drug use, criminal record, a teenage pregnancy (not by Christie) and that she had not reported the abuse after Christie was charged.

Vartan said Christie was the root cause of the woman's behavior, and that he admitted to authorities that he had had sexual contact with the victim.

Christie was one of 22 people in 20 states arrested in July 2006 as part of an FBI child pornography sweep called "Project Safe Childhood."

Thousands of pornographic images involving children were found on his computer and on hundreds of digital CDs that were confiscated by authorities, Vartan said.

None of the images was of the woman who testified today. She said Christie began photographing her when she was 12, in various states of undress. The more than 1,000 images of her, however, were taken with a Polaroid camera. Despite a painstakingly thorough search, none of the images were recovered, Vartan said.

Before he was sentenced, Christie asked Ackerman for a new trial, contending that his constitutional rights had been violated. The motion was denied.

Tomas Gonzales Charged with Sexually Abusing 2 Relatives


A church pastor faces multiple felony charges in connection with allegations he sexually abused two female relatives.

Tomás Gonzáles, 61, of Mercedes, was arraigned Tuesday evening in Mercedes Municipal Court on two counts of indecency with a child and eight counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.

"I committed the error," he said in Spanish during the arraignment. "Now I have to pay for it."

Gonzáles serves as pastor at Templo Nueva Vida in a colonia at the intersection of Lott Road and Dedri Drive in the Weslaco area.

Sgt. Hugo Ramos Jr. of the Mercedes Police Department said a 15-year-old female relative wrote a letter to her mother last week saying that the man had sexually abused her since she was about 5 years old. Eventually, the girl's 13-year-old sister came forward with similar accusations.

Gonzáles was called to the police station Monday night for questioning and provided a voluntary confession to the crimes, Ramos said. "We just called him and he turned himself in."

The pastor allegedly abused the two girls when they visited him at his home, the sergeant said. The sisters are currently receiving counseling.

Investigators said they are following leads that could result in more charges against the man.

"There could possibly be more victims," Ramos said, adding that no incidents have been reported at the pastor's church.

Residents near Templo Nueva Vida said a man in a white truck sometimes picks up children to take them to church services in the evenings, though they were unsure whether that man was Gonzáles.

"There have been rumors about (sexual abuse at) the churches nearby," Margarita Espinoza, 32, said in Spanish. "If one doesn't go with the children, they shouldn't let them go at all."

Across the street from Templo Nueva Vida, about a dozen people gathered to pray in a small, hot warehouse that is home to the Iglesia de Jesucristo - Salvación Eterna.

The group chanted hymns while someone softly strummed along with a guitar.

"I hadn't heard of anything," said Alex Carmona Jr., whose father is a pastor at Iglesia de Jesucristo. "But anytime something happens against children, it's nothing good."

The sound of the chorus hummed through the colonia while a young girl wandered through an abandoned structure in a diaper and several boys rode their bicycles down the gravel road.

"One thinks some people are incapable of doing anything wrong," Espinoza said in Spanish. "But you have to be careful."

Gonzáles is not a registered sex offender and has no prior criminal history, according to available public records.

He remained at the Hidalgo County Jail on Tuesday night in lieu of a $2 million bond. If found guilty of aggravated sexual assault, he could face up to life in prison and a possible fine of up to $10,000.