It was the first day of school in Heppner today, but instead of spending it in the classroom, a junior/senior high teacher spent it in jail.
Wendy Cannin, 30, was arrested at 11 a.m. when Morrow County sheriff’s detectives arrived at her Heppner home, authorities said.
Cannin, a teacher in the Morrow County School District for two years, had been put on leave last week after officials learned about the sheriff’s office’s investigation.
Cannin is accused of having inappropriate sexual contact with two teenage boys, the sheriff’s office said.
The sexual activity allegedly occurred before the end of the last school year and continued during the summer until the middle of July.
The sexual contact occurred both on and off school property, authorities said.
Cannin was booked into the Umatilla County jail on suspicion of one count of sexual misconduct, four counts of third-degree sex abuse, and one count each of third-degree rape and third-degree sodomy.
A grand jury is expected to hear the allegations against Cannin tomorrow.
Showing posts with label sodomy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sodomy. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
Jeffery Dickson Convicted of Raping & Sodomizing 7-year-old
Greene County jurors have convicted a Springfield man accused of kidnapping, raping and sodomizing a 7-year-old-girl in April 2008.
The eight-man, four-woman jury found Jeffery A. Dickson, 39, guilty of child kidnapping, forcible rape and two counts of forcible sodomy. A sentencing hearing on Oct. 23 will determine whether he spends the rest of his life in prison.
Dickson — who’d been relatively sanguine over four days of testimony — stood, stoic, as Greene County Circuit Judge Michael Cordonnier read off the convictions to a packed courtroom.
Dickson will appeal, his public defender said.
Earlier today, attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury, which deliberated for just over two hours before announcing the verdict.
In his argument, Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Russ Dempsey methodically laid out the evidence against Dickson.
How several witnesses described Dickson being present at the North Kansas Expressway home where an all-night card game was taking place on April 5, 2008. How the girl, now 8, also was there, having been brought by her grandmother.
Dickson allegedly brought the girl Kool-Aid and helped her with the computer at various points. He also allegedly brought a cousin to the West Nichols Street home where the attack later occurred, selling him a TV.
Dempsey recounted the testimony of the alleged victim, who took the stand and described how “Jeff” came to the window of a bedroom she was playing in. He promised her a Barbie doll if she’d come with him, she said.
Dickson then allegedly took the girl to the home at 1024 W. Nichols St. — the owner wasn’t there — raped and sodomized her. He then allegedly choked her to unconsciousness and set the house on fire, an allegation for which he is not charged due to a lack on concrete physical evidence.
“Quite honestly, I don’t care if an accelerant was used,” Dempsey said, referring to fuel investigators believe was used to start the blaze. “I don’t care if he used a blow torch. I don’t care if he started it with a single match. I don’t care if a bolt of lightning struck the house.
“The fact of the matter is that (the girl) was raped and sodomized, then left inside the house when it caught fire.”
Testimony indicated the girl picked Dickson out of a photo lineup after the attack.
Lastly, Dempsey discussed a partial DNA profile found on the girl’s thigh after the attack. Because the sample was scant, analysts were not able to build a full DNA profile.
However, they performed a Y-chromosome test on the swab, and found it matched DNA on Dickson’s Y-chromosome.
That same profile would be found on any male relatives in Dickson’s paternal lineage, the analyst said. Additionally, it might be found in 1-in-3,636 individuals.
Prosecutors argue the coincidence is too great for it to have come from anyone but Dickson.
Public defender Rod Hackathorn, meanwhile, argued the girl had been swayed into believing Dickson was her attacker.
“What this case has been about from the defense standpoint from day one has been whether or not Jeff Dickson committed this crime,” Hackathorn said. “What this case has not been about is whether or not something happened to (the girl).”
He noted the child was the sole eyewitness who could say what happened to her in the early morning hours of April 6, 2008, and pointed out changes in her story from the attack until Dickson’s trial.
Prominent in this argument was the girl’s interview at Springfield’s Child Advocacy Center. Asked if she’d ever seen the man who attacked her in that interview, the girl said she hadn’t seen him until he came to her window.
In testimony, she referred to Dickson by name.
But prosecutors noted the girl described Dickson to her mother as she lay in a hospital bed shortly after the attack. That description allegedly involved a man who’d given her Kool-Aid, and was wearing a “do-rag,” as Dickson was that night.
Hackathorn suggested the girl was swayed by her grandmother, who allegedly had begun to suspect Dickson before she met the girl at the hospital.
“Don’t you think that grandma wanted to give a name?” he said. “Well, Jeff is the easy target. They convicted Jeff as soon as grandma got to the hospital.”
Prior to attorney’s arguments, Greene County Circuit Judge Michael Cordonnier ruled Hackathorn would not be allowed to suggest Dickson’s brother might have carried out the attack.
Hackathorn had planned to argue the brother occasionally hung out at the house from which the girl was abducted, was familiar with the West Nichols Street home where the assault occurred, and lived near the girl’s grandmother.
But Cordonnier ruled “there has been no proof that anyone other than the defendant committed any act connected with this crime.”
“The court is not going to permit that argument,” he said. “To do otherwise would invite the jury to enter into conjecture.”
Hackathorn instead referred to foreign DNA found under the victim’s fingernails after the assault. Analysis of the material found it wasn’t Dickson’s.
Hackathorn suggested that the girl grabbed her attacker’s hands when he choked her, and that the DNA under her fingernails belongs to the perpetrator.
“I know your heart aches for what the little girl went through,” he told jurors. “I know you want to do something for that family. That family wants more than anything for Jeff Dickson to go to prison.
“That’s the easy thing to do: to come back with a guilty verdict. But sometimes the hard thing to do is also the right thing to do.”
In a rebuttal argument, Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Jill Patterson once again summarized the state’s evidence, then posed a question.
“How does a 7-year-old wearing jeans end up with DNA matching a person who did all those suspicious things you heard about that night? she asked. “The person who took an interest in that little girl. The person who was in the same home with her and had been to 1024 West Nichols that evening.
“How does she end up with DNA on her skin matching that person? I submit to you that you know how that DNA got on (the girl).”
The eight-man, four-woman jury found Jeffery A. Dickson, 39, guilty of child kidnapping, forcible rape and two counts of forcible sodomy. A sentencing hearing on Oct. 23 will determine whether he spends the rest of his life in prison.
Dickson — who’d been relatively sanguine over four days of testimony — stood, stoic, as Greene County Circuit Judge Michael Cordonnier read off the convictions to a packed courtroom.
Dickson will appeal, his public defender said.
Earlier today, attorneys presented their closing arguments to the jury, which deliberated for just over two hours before announcing the verdict.
In his argument, Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Russ Dempsey methodically laid out the evidence against Dickson.
How several witnesses described Dickson being present at the North Kansas Expressway home where an all-night card game was taking place on April 5, 2008. How the girl, now 8, also was there, having been brought by her grandmother.
Dickson allegedly brought the girl Kool-Aid and helped her with the computer at various points. He also allegedly brought a cousin to the West Nichols Street home where the attack later occurred, selling him a TV.
Dempsey recounted the testimony of the alleged victim, who took the stand and described how “Jeff” came to the window of a bedroom she was playing in. He promised her a Barbie doll if she’d come with him, she said.
Dickson then allegedly took the girl to the home at 1024 W. Nichols St. — the owner wasn’t there — raped and sodomized her. He then allegedly choked her to unconsciousness and set the house on fire, an allegation for which he is not charged due to a lack on concrete physical evidence.
“Quite honestly, I don’t care if an accelerant was used,” Dempsey said, referring to fuel investigators believe was used to start the blaze. “I don’t care if he used a blow torch. I don’t care if he started it with a single match. I don’t care if a bolt of lightning struck the house.
“The fact of the matter is that (the girl) was raped and sodomized, then left inside the house when it caught fire.”
Testimony indicated the girl picked Dickson out of a photo lineup after the attack.
Lastly, Dempsey discussed a partial DNA profile found on the girl’s thigh after the attack. Because the sample was scant, analysts were not able to build a full DNA profile.
However, they performed a Y-chromosome test on the swab, and found it matched DNA on Dickson’s Y-chromosome.
That same profile would be found on any male relatives in Dickson’s paternal lineage, the analyst said. Additionally, it might be found in 1-in-3,636 individuals.
Prosecutors argue the coincidence is too great for it to have come from anyone but Dickson.
Public defender Rod Hackathorn, meanwhile, argued the girl had been swayed into believing Dickson was her attacker.
“What this case has been about from the defense standpoint from day one has been whether or not Jeff Dickson committed this crime,” Hackathorn said. “What this case has not been about is whether or not something happened to (the girl).”
He noted the child was the sole eyewitness who could say what happened to her in the early morning hours of April 6, 2008, and pointed out changes in her story from the attack until Dickson’s trial.
Prominent in this argument was the girl’s interview at Springfield’s Child Advocacy Center. Asked if she’d ever seen the man who attacked her in that interview, the girl said she hadn’t seen him until he came to her window.
In testimony, she referred to Dickson by name.
But prosecutors noted the girl described Dickson to her mother as she lay in a hospital bed shortly after the attack. That description allegedly involved a man who’d given her Kool-Aid, and was wearing a “do-rag,” as Dickson was that night.
Hackathorn suggested the girl was swayed by her grandmother, who allegedly had begun to suspect Dickson before she met the girl at the hospital.
“Don’t you think that grandma wanted to give a name?” he said. “Well, Jeff is the easy target. They convicted Jeff as soon as grandma got to the hospital.”
Prior to attorney’s arguments, Greene County Circuit Judge Michael Cordonnier ruled Hackathorn would not be allowed to suggest Dickson’s brother might have carried out the attack.
Hackathorn had planned to argue the brother occasionally hung out at the house from which the girl was abducted, was familiar with the West Nichols Street home where the assault occurred, and lived near the girl’s grandmother.
But Cordonnier ruled “there has been no proof that anyone other than the defendant committed any act connected with this crime.”
“The court is not going to permit that argument,” he said. “To do otherwise would invite the jury to enter into conjecture.”
Hackathorn instead referred to foreign DNA found under the victim’s fingernails after the assault. Analysis of the material found it wasn’t Dickson’s.
Hackathorn suggested that the girl grabbed her attacker’s hands when he choked her, and that the DNA under her fingernails belongs to the perpetrator.
“I know your heart aches for what the little girl went through,” he told jurors. “I know you want to do something for that family. That family wants more than anything for Jeff Dickson to go to prison.
“That’s the easy thing to do: to come back with a guilty verdict. But sometimes the hard thing to do is also the right thing to do.”
In a rebuttal argument, Assistant Greene County Prosecutor Jill Patterson once again summarized the state’s evidence, then posed a question.
“How does a 7-year-old wearing jeans end up with DNA matching a person who did all those suspicious things you heard about that night? she asked. “The person who took an interest in that little girl. The person who was in the same home with her and had been to 1024 West Nichols that evening.
“How does she end up with DNA on her skin matching that person? I submit to you that you know how that DNA got on (the girl).”
Michael Crites Arrested for Forcible Sodomy on 10-year-old
A 26-year-old Springfield man accused of sexually assaulting a boy near a Jordan Creek swimming spot appeared in court today, waiving his right to a probable cause hearing.
Michael W. Crites is charged with kidnapping, two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy.
Prosecutors say he snatched a 10-year-old boy from a swimming hole near the intersection of Meadowmere and Hillcrest streets on July 15, then took him into the woods and sodomized him.
Crites allegedly told the boy not to scream or it would “be worse,” according to a probable cause statement filed with the charges.
The boy ran home and told his mother of the assault.
In an interview with police, Crites allegedly said he’d been walking in the woods with the boy,
“Crites was unsure how (the boy) ended up on the ground, but stated he sat next to (the child) and touched (the boy’s) anus with his hand,” the probable cause statement said. “Crites realized what he was doing, got up, and ran away.”
Crites is scheduled to be arraigned in Greene County Circuit Court on Aug. 28. He’s being held in the Greene County Jail on a $200,000 bond.
Michael W. Crites is charged with kidnapping, two counts of forcible sodomy and two counts of first-degree statutory sodomy.
Prosecutors say he snatched a 10-year-old boy from a swimming hole near the intersection of Meadowmere and Hillcrest streets on July 15, then took him into the woods and sodomized him.
Crites allegedly told the boy not to scream or it would “be worse,” according to a probable cause statement filed with the charges.
The boy ran home and told his mother of the assault.
In an interview with police, Crites allegedly said he’d been walking in the woods with the boy,
“Crites was unsure how (the boy) ended up on the ground, but stated he sat next to (the child) and touched (the boy’s) anus with his hand,” the probable cause statement said. “Crites realized what he was doing, got up, and ran away.”
Crites is scheduled to be arraigned in Greene County Circuit Court on Aug. 28. He’s being held in the Greene County Jail on a $200,000 bond.
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Arlayne Curiel Arrested for Sexual Abuse
ALBANY, Ore.
An Albany woman called police on Saturday to report that she was being harassed by neighbors. By Tuesday her tale had unraveled, according to police reports, and 24-year-old Arlayne Curiel was in jail.
A police investigation alleges that the harassment started when neighbors discovered she had spent early Saturday morning having sexual contact with a 13-year-old boy. According to police, Curiel reportedly met a 13-year-old boy while walking in downtown Albany Friday night. At about 1 a.m. on Saturday the 13-year-old boy reportedly went to Curiel's home.
Police said Curiel then gave the 13 year old alcohol before entering an unoccupied home next door with him at 2335 S.E. Salem Ave., where they had sexual contact.
On Tuesday, Albany police detectives arrested her on multiple charges. She was lodged in the Linn County Jail on the following charges:
• Sex Abuse in the First Degree (2 counts)
• Sodomy in the Second Degree (3 counts of hand- or mouth-to-genital contact)
• Rape in the Second Degree
• Burglary in the First Degree
• Furnishing Alcohol to a Minor
One person who said they knew Curiel said she may be developmentally disabled and did not know what she was doing was wrong.
The investigation is ongoing. Anyone with any information regarding Arlayne Curiel or this investigation is asked to call the Albany Police Department Detective Section at (541) 917-7686.
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Linda Nef Sentenced to 3 Years to Life for Having Sex with Student
Despite requests from Linda Nef's 13-year-old victim and his family, Judge Rodney Page said Tuesday that he had no other choice but to send a former Bountiful Junior High teacher to prison.
The 2nd District judge sentenced Nef to three years to life in prison for having sex with one of her former students, and a flushed and sobbing Nef was immediately handcuffed and led from the courtroom.
In lengthy remarks before he imposed the sentence, Page said he wished the responsibility to sentence her rested with someone else.
"I haven't slept well in thinking about this case and knowing that from the date the defendant entered her plea, it would be my responsibility to impose sentence," Page said.
While he said it was commendable that Nef had come forward and confessed her wrongdoing with the boy, he said there were hundreds if not thousands of victims besides this particular boy who had been hurt by her actions.
"The greater victim in this might be our society as a whole," Page said. "This undermines our faith, beliefs and confidence in institutions that create the foundation of freedoms by which we live — and that is our schools.
"In our society, we esteem our teachers to be among the most honorable people, although sometimes we wouldn't think that by the way we try to pay them and other things. We entrust them with the most important commodity we have in our society, and that is our children," Page said.
Page said he had no doubt Nef was a good teacher and was genuinely repentant for what she has done, but the judge sensed Nef also was motivated by the "a concern this was going to come out anyway" once Nef got word about an alleged sexual relationship between another teacher and the same boy.
A tearful Nef, 46, apologized to her victim, his family and "educators everywhere who have been damaged by my actions," but especially the faculty at Bountiful Junior High, whom she characterized as honorable and hard-working people.
"I loved teaching with all my heart — and yet I committed a crime," she said.
Nef, who is married and the mother of three, began to choke up as she described how sorry she was for any harm she had done to the boy and said she wanted to offer her apologies publicly for "my completely selfish actions."
"I was an adult, I was responsible, and I knew better," she said.
Nef pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, as part of a plea bargain.
She originally faced charges of rape of a child and sodomy on a child, both first-degree felonies that generally carry tough penalties.
_______________________
The 2nd District judge sentenced Nef to three years to life in prison for having sex with one of her former students, and a flushed and sobbing Nef was immediately handcuffed and led from the courtroom.
In lengthy remarks before he imposed the sentence, Page said he wished the responsibility to sentence her rested with someone else.
"I haven't slept well in thinking about this case and knowing that from the date the defendant entered her plea, it would be my responsibility to impose sentence," Page said.
While he said it was commendable that Nef had come forward and confessed her wrongdoing with the boy, he said there were hundreds if not thousands of victims besides this particular boy who had been hurt by her actions.
"The greater victim in this might be our society as a whole," Page said. "This undermines our faith, beliefs and confidence in institutions that create the foundation of freedoms by which we live — and that is our schools.
"In our society, we esteem our teachers to be among the most honorable people, although sometimes we wouldn't think that by the way we try to pay them and other things. We entrust them with the most important commodity we have in our society, and that is our children," Page said.
Page said he had no doubt Nef was a good teacher and was genuinely repentant for what she has done, but the judge sensed Nef also was motivated by the "a concern this was going to come out anyway" once Nef got word about an alleged sexual relationship between another teacher and the same boy.
A tearful Nef, 46, apologized to her victim, his family and "educators everywhere who have been damaged by my actions," but especially the faculty at Bountiful Junior High, whom she characterized as honorable and hard-working people.
"I loved teaching with all my heart — and yet I committed a crime," she said.
Nef, who is married and the mother of three, began to choke up as she described how sorry she was for any harm she had done to the boy and said she wanted to offer her apologies publicly for "my completely selfish actions."
"I was an adult, I was responsible, and I knew better," she said.
Nef pleaded guilty in June to a reduced charge of attempted aggravated sexual abuse of a child, a first-degree felony, as part of a plea bargain.
She originally faced charges of rape of a child and sodomy on a child, both first-degree felonies that generally carry tough penalties.
_______________________
More of the story: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705318304/Former-teacher-sent-to-prison.html?pg=2
Other Informatuon:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7245167
Other Informatuon:
http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=7245167
Monday, July 20, 2009
Melvin Dean Blanchard Arrested for Sexual Abuse
A Dothan man is arrested for a crime, investigators say, he committed 15 years ago.
Investigators with the Henry County - Abbeville Police Task Force say Melvin Dean Blanchard, 47, sodomized and sexually abused a child under the age of 12.
Detectives say Blanchard had the contact with the child in Headland during October 1994 and May 1998.
Investigators say the victim was eleven when the assaults began.
Blanchard is charged with felony first-degree sodomy and felony sex abuse of a child less than the age of 12.
Blanchard is currently being held in the Henry County Jail under a $40,000 bond.
_______________________
http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/51225232.html
Investigators with the Henry County - Abbeville Police Task Force say Melvin Dean Blanchard, 47, sodomized and sexually abused a child under the age of 12.
Detectives say Blanchard had the contact with the child in Headland during October 1994 and May 1998.
Investigators say the victim was eleven when the assaults began.
Blanchard is charged with felony first-degree sodomy and felony sex abuse of a child less than the age of 12.
Blanchard is currently being held in the Henry County Jail under a $40,000 bond.
_______________________
http://www.wtvynews4.com/news/headlines/51225232.html
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