Feds: Nearly 1,700 Arrested in Child Porn,
Abuse Crackdown
A grade school girl takes part in a Manila public forum on child pornography, also attended by UN officials and local movie actors in Manila on June 5, 2009. (Jay Directo/AFP/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON—The Justice Department says nearly 1,700 people have been arrested following a two-month crackdown aimed at targeting suspected child predators.
The announcement on June 11 caps the nationwide investigation conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies around the U.S.
Prosecutors said they identified more than 300 people suspected of producing child pornography or committing sexual abuse involving children.
The investigation, nicknamed “Broken Heart,” was conducted in April and May. Officials said they investigated more than 18,500 complaints of crimes against children.
Attorney General William Barr vowed to bring “the full force of the law against sexual predators.”
Officials say the crackdown targeted suspects who produced or possessed child pornography, who tried to entice children online for sex, traveled to other states or countries to abuse children or engaged in sex trafficking.
Online predators
One in seven children who use the internet receives unwanted sexual solicitations, according to the New York Specialized Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC). Online predators often pose as children to trick child victims into trusting them. The predators exploit the trust to get the children to produce sexually explicit material. The children who fall prey to the scheme are then often extorted with the threat that their photographs would be sent to their family and friends.
“As society becomes more advanced, so do the predators,” said Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan, during a June 11 conference in Atlanta.
“No longer do they merely lurk around the playground or the schoolyard. Instead, these deviants use advanced technologies to facilitate their crimes, targeting children in online chat rooms and videogame lobbies,” O’Callaghan said.
“In fact, just last month, a California man was sentenced to 14 years in prison for sexually exploiting a minor he met while playing ‘Clash of Clans,’ an online video game that any child can easily access through a mobile device or tablet,” he added.
Child sex predators are increasingly using sophisticated technology to encrypt their communications and conceal their whereabouts. Hundreds of thousands of predators use the anonymous Tor browser to flock to websites on the darknet dedicated to child sex exploitation.
A law enforcement review of nine Tor sites hosting child sex abuse discussions, videos, and images tracked 1.9 million members last fall. Some sites were adding thousands of new users every day. One child sex abuse site has 432,235 registered members, according to WePROTECT Global Alliance.
I am inclined to believe that the DarkNet needs to be destroyed, either by hackers or by more violent means. The good that occurs on that platform is outweighed by the evil a million times.
Spectacular growth
Online child sex abuse and the production of child pornography are skyrocketing. Reports of online child sexual abuse and exploitation tracked by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children grew tenfold from 2013 to 2017. The number of identified child victims grew five-fold between 2010 and 2017, to 15,000 from roughly 3,000 sexually abused children.
As the epidemic booms, law enforcement authorities are struggling to keep up. The number of child exploitation cases went up by 160 percent between 2008 and 2018, according to Callaghan. Federal prosecutors filed more than 2,500 child exploitation cases in the fiscal year 2018, capturing just a fraction of the predators.
Barr issued guidance to the Justice Department to pursue maximum sentences in child sex exploitation cases, according to O’Callaghan.
“For example, last month a Nebraska man was sentenced to 35 years in prison, followed by a lifetime term of supervised release for filming himself engaged in forcible, sexual acts with a non-communicative minor,” O’Callaghan said. “He represents just one of the many vile criminals that the Department will work hard to remove from society for as long as legally possible.”
I am of the opinion that any app, any program that allows child sexual abuse images, or child exploitation to occur in any form should be shut down for a period of time for each and every incident. Even if it is just for a matter of days, it will incite the program producers to filter out pedophiles like nothing else will.
Georgia mom who allowed men to rape her daughters, ages 5 and 6, sentenced to prison
This story is a year old, but the horror of mixing drugs and children needs to be shouted from the rooftops. It's always the children who suffer from adult's idiocy and evil.
BY TRIBUNE MEDIA WIRE
FULTON COUNTY, Ga. – The Georgia mother who allowed men to rape her daughters in exchange for drugs and money was sentenced Monday to 20 years in prison and 10 years probation, according to WXIA.
Morgan Summerlin, 25, who pleaded guilty in May (2018), could be seen blowing kisses to family members as officers led her out of the courtroom.
Summerlin, who won’t be eligible for parole, faced a possible 140 years in prison on counts of first-degree cruelty to children, enticing a child for indecent purposes and trafficking a person for sexual servitude.
The two girls, who were 5 and 6 years old at the time, told investigators that Summerlin would take them to visit 78-year-old Richard Office’s home in Palmetto, where he would abuse them. The girls said that when he was done, he would give them money which Summerlin would take.
A judge sentenced Office, who was found guilty of rape, trafficking a person for sexual servitude, child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes, to life in prison plus 146 years, according to WGCL.
Another man, Alfredo Trejo, was also sentenced in February for sexually abusing the girls. He received 25 years in prison and lifetime probation after he was found guilty on charges of rape, sexual battery, child molestation and aggravated child molestation.
A judge also sentenced the children’s grandmother to five years, with one year already served, according to WXIA. She was charged with cruelty to children for being aware of the abuse and not helping her granddaughters.
The children are now reportedly living with a family member.
Are they getting the counselling they are going to need for many years to recover from this horror story?
There may be other alleged victims in San Bernardino, CA child molestation case
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY | The Press-Enterprise
A San Bernardino man pleaded not guilty this week to charges of child sexual abuse filed after he was investigated on reports he assaulted two children, ages 7 and 10.
Authorities said Wednesday there may be additional alleged victims.
Marvin Jesus Matute, 44, entered the pleas to two counts, including one charging continuous sexual abuse of a child, on Tuesday according to San Bernardino County Superior Court records. He remained in custody Wednesday, June 12, in lieu of posting bond on $250,000 bail.
Matute was investigated by San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies on June 7 after they received complaints about Matute and the two children.
“Interviews were conducted and evidence was gathered that showed Matute sexually abused the two victims over several months,” the department said.
Investigators believe there may be other possible victims, and ask anyone with information to contact the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department Central Station at 909-387-3545. Anonymous tips can me made to 800-782-7463 or www.wetip.com.
Arrest Made in 2nd Degree Child Sex Abuse Offense in DC
This is a news release from the Washington Metropolitan Police Dept., provided verbatim.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police Department’s Youth and Family Services Division announced an arrest has been made in reference to a Second Degree Child Sex Abuse offense.
Between Tuesday, January 15, 2019 and Wednesday, May 8, 2019, the suspect, who was a former contracted employee of the school, engaged in sexual contact with a 13-year-old juvenile student. All offenses occurred in the 200 block of G Street, Northeast.
On Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 21 year-old Jestin Hickman, of Southeast, DC, was charged with Second Degree Child Sex Abuse.
No indication of which 'school' is mentioned in this report, but I'm guessing it is Capitol Hill Montessori School.
'Children are being hurt': Rally calls on Southern Baptists to do more to prevent sexual abuse
Katherine Burgess, Memphis Commercial Appeal
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Some Southern Baptists stopped to listen. Others kept walking to their buses or shuttles.
“I am not your enemy standing here fighting you," said Jules Woodson, on the verge of tears. "I am a Christian woman crying, saying, 'Don’t you hear me? Don’t you hear me?'”
Woodson was sexually assaulted by her youth pastor as a teenager. She said after she came forward with her story, a Memphis church gave Andy Savage, the man who assaulted her, a standing ovation when he admitted to a "sexual incident."
She was one of several abuse survivors and supporters who gathered for a "For Such a Time as This Rally" on the sidewalk outside the Southern Baptist Convention's large annual meeting.
Jules Woodson, center, of Colorado Springs, Colo., is comforted by her boyfriend Ben Smith, left, and Christa Brown while demonstrating outside the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting Tuesday in Birmingham, Ala. First-time attendee Woodson spoke through tears as she described being abused sexually by a Southern Baptist minister. (Photo: Julie Bennett, AP)
Rally organizers had three demands of the Southern Baptist Convention:
That an independently-maintained database be established to track Southern Baptist clergy who are “credibly accused,” have admitted abuse, have pleaded guilty or were convicted.
That women be respected. “Women aren’t always treated with respect in the Southern Baptist Convention," said rally organizer Ashley Easter. "Abuse is about power and control. When women are constantly put under the power and control of men, of course abuse is going to happen.”
That mandatory training be offered to all Southern Baptist pastors, seminary students, ministry leaders and volunteers on sexual abuse, domestic abuse and sexual assault.
The name of the rally alludes to the biblical story of Queen Esther, who risked her life to speak up for her people.
The rally occurred on the sidewalk since the convention would not allow it to take place in a large outdoor space within the convention center limits, according to rally organizers.
Christa Brown, who was abused by a Southern Baptist pastor, said her abuse was “only the beginning of the nightmare.”
“Almost every Southern Baptist survivor I have ever spoken with has said the trauma from the institutional betrayal far exceeded the trauma from the abuse itself," she said. "Imagine: As horrific as child sex abuse is, even greater harm is being done by the complicity of so many others in this denomination that turns its back.”
Woodson also described how dealing with her abuse, which happened 20 years ago, is an "everyday thing" for her. She said that as a mother of three girls, she wonders how she can protect them "from the horrors" she has seen within the Southern Baptist Convention.
Although Savage and two of the pastors she reported the alleged assault to have resigned, one pastor has not admitted any wrongdoing. Woodson said she has reached out to him and that he will not respond.
"I have so many questions," she said. "It was not only against the law, it was against Jesus."
The rally came around the same time as Southern Baptist representatives voted to create a new committee to handle misconduct allegations against Southern Baptist churches. The changes make it clear churches can get expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention over issues of sexual abuse.
Earlier in the day, Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear said focusing on the sexual abuse crisis is not a distraction from the mission of the church, but is a gospel issue.
"If we do not deal decisively with this, rising generations will simply not come to our churches," Greear said. "Our failure in this drives them away. It's a gospel issue when the gospel is above all."
He makes it sound so technical! Where is the repentance? Where is the conviction? Where is the humility? He's saying if we don't do something people will stop coming to church. "It's a Gospel issue" means we should be worried about turning people away from Jesus Christ, not the church! I'm alarmed at how much this rhetoric sounds like the Catholic response to their prolific problem with pedophile priests. Sinning against God should be the paramount concern here.
Easter said that despite the convention's actions Tuesday, more needs to occur.
"Children are being hurt today," she said. "Something has to happen today."
One Southern Baptist pastor joined the rally, apologizing for his past silence on the issues.
Dwight McKissic, senior pastor of a church in Arlington, Texas, compared today's fight against sexual abuse to the Civil Rights Movement.
"I cant speak for the Southern Baptist Convention, but I can speak for one pastor," McKissic said. "I hurt, I bleed, I cry with you. Your pain is our pain. If you are hurting, we are hurting. It’s time for us to stand up with Bibles in our hands. It’s time for us to stand up with the word of God in our mouth and say enough is enough."
SEXUAL ABUSE IN THE CHURCH
Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptists approve changes aimed at expelling churches that don't address sexual abuse
'Children are being hurt': Rally calls on Southern Baptists to do more to prevent sexual abuse
'Our family is sick': Abuse survivors call for moving beyond words to action
Matt Chandler, prominent Texas pastor, addresses article on abuse, criticism at Southern Baptist Convention
Debate over women's roles breaks out on eve of Southern Baptist meeting
Allentown, PA man arrested for child sexual assault in Newark, NJ
By: 69 News
ALLENTOWN, Pa. -
An Allentown man has been arrested and charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against a 14-year-old student in the Newark Public Schools system.
According to a press release from the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, Luis Aviles, 50, is accused of committing the assaults on school property while school was in session while working as an art instructor.
The victim reported that Aviles had begun the sexual assaults in Dec. 2017 and continued into September of the next school year.
Aviles has been employed by the school system for 19 years.
Potter Co., TX grand jury indicts 6 people on
child sex abuse charges
by Debra Parker
AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — A Potter County grand jury impaneled in 181st District Court has returned various child sex abuse charges in separate cases against six people, according to court documents.
The indictments were filed with the Potter County District Clerk on Wednesday, May 29. The indictments do not indicate any connection among the cases.
The documents name seven children as having been preyed upon. ABC 7 Amarillo will not release the names of those children.
According to the indictments of May 29, these are the people and the charges they face:
Larry Joe Russell, 57, two charges of sexual assault of a child. Each charge was enhanced. He also faces indictment on a charge of failing to register annually as a sex offender. The assaults allegedly occurred on Dec. 16, 2018.
Orlando Sanchez, 29, on a charge of sex abuse of a child continuous/victim under 14. The abuse is alleged to have occurred from about Sept. 24, 1912 (I suspect they mean 2012), until about Sept. 24, 2017.
Jason Edward Levi, 46, two counts of sexual assault of a child involving one child. Those assaults allegedly occurred about May 5, 2018. He also was indicted on a separate count of sexual assault of a child involving another child. That charge stems from an assault alleged to have occurred Sept. 13, 2018.
Angel Luna, 21, a single count of sexual assault of a child. The assault allegedly occurred about Sept. 9, 2018.
Briceson Trayvon Pipkins, 23, a single charge of sexual assault of a child. The assault is alleged to have occurred on Oct. 15, 2018.
Lome Sein, 39, two counts of sexual assault of a child by contact. Only one child was involved. The assaults were alleged to have occurred June 1, 2011.
Potter Co., TX
Affidavits Reveal Details Of Santa Rosa, TX Teacher’s Sexual Abuse Of Female Students
By JSALINAS KURV710
Law enforcement affidavits are detailing the allegations that led to the arrests last month of two Santa Rosa school teachers and coaches on student sexual abuse charges.
The affidavits, obtained by the Valley Morning Star, are from interviews investigators conducted with two 16-year-old girls who describe being given drugs and alcohol and having sex with the men, sometimes in motel rooms, sometimes in the teachers’ vehicles.
According to the teenagers, the illegal activity took place for about a 3-month period early this year. Meanwhile, the investigation has widened to identify Santa Rosa school district personnel who may have known about the activity and failed to report it.
The two teachers, 35-year-old Josue Cepeda and 24-year-old Isaac Flores, were indicted in May on charges of child sexual assault and having improper relations with a student. They remain jailed on bonds totaling $525,000.
Mothers: Air Force stumbled amid child sex assault reports
The Associated Press
To the mothers, the 13-year-old boy appeared largely unsupervised as he roamed among the clusters of townhomes on the U.S. Air Force base in Japan.
It would have been unremarkable — the neighborhood was full of kids — except that young girls were starting to report the boy had led them from play and molested them.
"We were like, `How is this OK?"' the mother of one 5-year-old girl told The Associated Press, which granted her anonymity to protect her daughter's privacy. She locked her kids inside.
The first girl to report had to wait six days for officials on the largest Air Force installation in the Pacific to provide counseling. The mothers didn't feel much urgency from Air Force criminal investigators either. They told the families they'd waited 13 days to meet the boy's father.
By then, mothers had identified five girls, ages 2 to 7, who said the boy had taken them to some trees or a playground or his house. Another five kids would allege abuse soon after.
"We come here, and it takes the worst cases that you can imagine to find out that you don't have the services to support your children," the 5-year-old's mother said. "There's a feeling of complete distrust."
This was not supposed to happen again. Last August, Congress ordered the Defense Department to overhaul how it handles allegations of sexual assault among the tens of thousands of military kids who live or attend school on U.S. bases worldwide.
Yet the case at Kadena Air Base began unfolding in February — six months after President Donald Trump signed those landmark reforms.
For decades, justice has been elusive on American bases when the children of service members sexually assaulted each other. Help for victims and accountability for offenders was rare in the nearly 700 reports over a decade that an AP investigation documented.
The new law required reforms across the Pentagon. The school system it runs for service members' kids had to create new student protections. The Family Advocacy Program, whose social service counselors would turn victims away , must review reports. The Office of the Secretary of Defense will track cases and create a policy for how to handle them.
The reforms are now rolling out, and the rollout has been uneven.
The Air Force has not drafted new guidelines. Instead, it is "reserving decision on adding or amending policy until publication of a Department of Defense policy," according to spokesman Maj. Nicholas Mercurio.
Like other armed services, Air Force representatives are helping form that policy. A Pentagon spokeswoman could not say when it will be published.
Mercurio called the Japan case "an extremely difficult situation." He said the Air Force has scrambled to deliver "helping resources to the families involved while remaining focused on protecting the rights and privacies of all parties and preserving the integrity of the ongoing investigation."
Kadena Air Base spokeswoman Lt. Col. Christy Stravolo noted that the 13-year-old boy has returned to the U.S. with his family. That happened within several weeks of the first allegations. Attempts to reach his parents were unsuccessful.
That's what they used to do when a soldier/airman/sailor etc., got a local girl pregnant and didn't want to marry her; they would transfer him out quickly. Sounds like not much has changed.
Has there been any notification to his new neighborhood/school that the kid is a predator? Is he getting counselling? Is anyone investigating why a 13 y/o kid is a predator? Shouldn't the parents be held somewhat responsible?
———
The Army didn't wait to follow the Pentagon's lead. It wrote its own policy.
That March 21 directive mandates both a criminal investigation and victim assistance through Family Advocacy, which now must inform counterparts on other bases when an offender's family transfers.
Because military law doesn't apply to family members, justice must come under civilian law. So cases on Army bases will be referred to state or local district attorneys who, unlike federal prosecutors, have juvenile justice systems.
"There's a recognition that states are best able to adjudicate," said Charles Lozano, an Army attorney who helped draft the policy.
The policy does not explore the nuances of overseas bases, where host-nation civilian authorities may treat juvenile sex crime allegations very differently. Instead of handing over suspects to Japanese officials, for example, the military often flies them back.
Rep. Jackie Speier, who chairs the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, said she was encouraged that Army's policy was "more comprehensive" than the law required.
"We're going to continue to track this," Speier said. "I'm not certain that this is enough. I'm very watchful in terms of observing what happens when these incidents occur. And they will occur."
The Navy and Marines fall between the Army and Air Force.
The Marine Corps is updating its guidelines to include "language and protocols that address problematic sexual behavior in children and youth," according to Maj. Craig Thomas. Publication is expected by year's end.
Naval leaders have directed base commanders to work with social services, according to spokesman Lt. Samuel Boyle. The Navy also has issued interim guidance, which it would not share.
The most detailed changes came to the Pentagon-run school system that educates more than 70,000 students on bases in the U.S., Asia and Europe.
These students have not received protections public school students get under Title IX, a federal law that's been used to investigate sexual assault in schools and to help victims. Congress said students at Pentagon-run schools must get protections "at least comparable to" Title IX. The school system published new policies in February.
School officials are supposed to be trained by Oct. 1, and a new incident logging system is scheduled to launch in the fall, the Department of Defense Education Activity said in a written statement. For now, the school system introduced a "Sexual Harassment Awareness and Prevention" website .
Four Title IX experts who reviewed the policies for AP said that while broadly they create comparable protections, their substantial shortcomings include a complex investigation process that relies on already-stretched school principals.
"It seems unlikely that a principal would have both the training and the time to conduct these investigations in a thorough and timely manner," said Megan Farrell, Title IX coordinator for the Palo Alto Unified School District in California.
A mid-April post on a Facebook page for teachers at Pentagon-run schools asked whether anyone was aware of the new policies. Two said they had received training. One more mentioned a question-and-answer session at her school. Another eight had no training, with nearly all unaware of the new policy.
———
About 4,000 students attend seven schools on Kadena. Like schools on many U.S. bases, Kadena's have struggled with sex assault allegations — in 2014, several high school students reported attacks.
The full scope of the latest case remains under investigation. The AP interviewed two mothers of girls who were among the first to report and a third person who helped organize families. According to one mother, investigators stopped giving updates after relating that 10 kids had alleged abuse.
That same mother was troubled by guidance she heard from base officials: Don't ask your daughter about what happened and don't engage deeply if she raises it.
Investigators warned that conversations could taint a potential case, though criminal prosecutions on overseas bases are rare . Counselors "said to just say, `How does that make you feel?"' the mother said.
Several experts said the best approach is a forensic interview by an expert followed by the therapeutic embrace of fully engaged parents. Talking can soften feelings of stigma and shame.
"Family support is critical to the healing," said Michelle Miller, coordinator for mental health initiatives at the National Children's Alliance, which accredits children's advocacy centers that specialize in forensic interviews.
The chief of Air Force's Family Advocacy Program said that while parents shouldn't press their children, they can encourage — and even initiate — discussion.
"Attempts to avoid, shut down, or stop uncomfortable conversations could be viewed by the child as a sign that he/she has done something wrong," Col. Patrick Pohle explained in email.
Three weeks into the Kadena case, some families still felt unsupported. An investigator had earlier suggested jolting the process with a call halfway around the world from the island of Okinawa — to Capitol Hill. In early March, the mother of the 5-year-old girl reached a sympathetic staffer at the Senate Armed Service Committee.
The next day, the commander of Kadena called and asked how he could help.
Air Force officials said they have mobilized investigators and other specialists from around the globe. The 5-year-old's mother acknowledged those efforts and that some of the families may have had a different experience. In late March, counselors distributed a one-page summary encouraging parents to talk openly with their children.
"The difference from the beginning to now is that there is more communication," the mother said, "but I don't have confidence that if it happened tomorrow, the process would be successful. The policies haven't been changed."
Massac County, Ill Sheriff’s Department accused of neglect in child sex abuse investigation
Krystle Callais
Massac County Investigator Chad Kaylor
MASSAC COUNTY, IL — The Massac County Sheriff’s Department is being accused of neglect in a child sex abuse investigation. This report coming from the Paducah Sun.
The case starts in August 2016 when a Massac County deputy was called to a home on report that a man had shown pornography to and masturbated in front of a 13-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy.
That investigation lead to Samuel Mizell being charged with two counts of predatory criminal sexual assault of a victim under 13 and one count of sexual exploitation of children.
Now the Massac County Sheriff’s Department is admitting they were negligent during their investigation of Mizell.
During a hearing last week, Mizell’s attorney focused mainly on the actions of Massac County Investigator Chad Kaylor.
Kaylor is set to succeed current Massac County Sheriff Ted Holder when he retires in August.
In his testimony, Kaylor said it took the department more than two weeks after they started the case to file a search warrant for Mizell’s home.
Evidence in the case was also never logged and eventually lost by the sheriff’s department.
This includes evidence recorded to a hard drive. Kaylor said the hard drive had crashed and all information on it was lost.
This hard drive not only had Mizzell’s case on it, but evidence from several other case.
Mizell’s attorney says not only is her client innocent, but that the mishandling of the case is making it hard to prove his innocent.
Another date to continue the case has not yet been set up.
I wonder if Kaylor's succession to Sheriff should be revisited?
Massac Co., Ill
