Vice Principal, Petting Zoo Worker, Child Pornographer on Today's Pedophiles List

Former Virginia educator faces additional charges for

child sex abuse

By Todd Densmore

HANOVER COUNTY, VIRGINIA (WRIC) — According to online court records, former Lee-Davis assistant principal, Michael Teegarden, is now facing three additional charges for sex crimes against a minor that stem from as far back as 1999.

Teegarden, the former Lee Davis High School assistant principal, was sentenced to four years on charges of child porn possession in February.

He will now be back in court on these new charges in June.

Working closely with members of the Southern Virginia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, investigators with the Hanover Sheriff’s Department learned in September 2015 that a computer in Teegarden’s residence was being used for online trading of digital child pornography, which led to authorities gaining and executing a search warrant of his home in October.



Investigators seized several electronic devices from Teegarden’s residence, which were examined by certified forensic examiners with Attorney General Mark Herring’s Office. The forensic examination corroborated the Teegarden’s admissions, revealing hundreds of images of child pornography on his electronic devices.

After working with the task force and the Linn County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon, authorities determined there was enough evidence to arrest and charge Teegarden with two counts of felony possession of child pornography.

Pennsylvania man arrested on multiple charges of

child sex abuse

Eric Stull, 48, remains in Greene County jail

CLARKSVILLE, Pa. — A Greene County man was arrested Friday on multiple counts of sexually assaulting a child.

Police arrested Eric Stull, 48, of Clarksville. Police said Stull possessed and disseminated images of videos depicting children younger than 18 engaged in sexual acts.

Stull also allegedly manufactured images and videos depicting a known child victim, approximately 8 or 9 years old, engaging in sexual acts with the accused.

Stull was charged with six counts of sexual abuse of children, criminal use of communication facility, and obscene/sexual material – public display.


Stull is being lodged in the Greene County Jail, as he failed to post $500,000 straight cash bail.

Petting zoo employee charged with 

child sex abuse in Alabama

Erin Edgemon 

An employee of a traveling petting zoo was arrested in Florence, Alabama on Saturday after allegations he sexually abused two children visiting the attraction.

Daryl V. Raymond Jr., 48, of Stockholm, Maine is charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12, a Class B felony, according to Florence police. He is being held without bond in the Lauderdale County Detention Center.

Raymond is an employee of Jungle Safari.


According to police, the owner of the petting zoo told Florence Police Chief Ron Tyler that he will be closing the petting zoo and moving to another city.

Lauderdale Co., Alabama

Google Helps Create ‘Web Crawler’ for Fighting Child Pornography

By Ethan Baron, Silicon Beat

An organization that works with police worldwide to remove images of child sexual abuse from the Internet has credited Google with helping it develop a “Web crawler” that finds child pornography.

“This is hugely important for the victims of child sex abuse, as this technology should block thousands of their illegal images from being viewed on the Internet,” the Internet Watch Foundation’s 2015 annual report said.

The crawler, combined with a system that tags abuse photos with codes, will also “ease the burden on analysts, as they won’t have to see so many disturbing images,” the report said.

This is a great idea!

The organization said the crawler came out of their “Googler in Residence” program, in which Google dedicated an engineer to work with the foundation. “This was just one part of the engineering support Google gave us in 2015,” the report said.

The project, which a foundation spokeswoman described as a pilot, facilitates removal of all circulating copies of particular abuse images. “By harnessing our engineering expertise through the Googler in Residence programme, (the foundation’s) skilled analysts have made amazing progress in identifying and then removing this illegal content from the web,” Katie O’Donovan, a public policy manager for Google in the U.K., said in the report. “We look forward to the next phase of the Googler in Residence project in 2016.”

Me too! Great work you guys.

Pornography Poses a Serious Threat to Couple Intimacy & Relationship Harmony

An Open Letter on Porn

By: Drs. John & Julie Gottman

Pornography in relationships has been an issue for a long time. Even today, professional recommendations on how to manage the use of pornography still vary widely. We attended one workshop in a couples therapy conference that recommended to merely accept porn use, especially by men, as natural and harmless. While this may be an extreme view, many clinicians have suggested that if a couple uses pornography as a stimulus for intimacy, or if they both agree to read or view pornographic materials together, then porn use is fine. In fact, many professionals have thought it might increase relationship connection and intimacy. In the Bringing Baby Home new parents workshop, we initially took this view since our research had demonstrated that, after a baby arrives, relationship intimacy decreases and measures were needed to strengthen intimate sexual connection.

Recently, however, research on the effects of pornography use, especially one person frequently viewing pornographic images online, shows that pornography can hurt a couple’s relationship. The effect may be true, in part, because pornography can be a “supernormal stimulus” (see Supernormal Stimuli by Deirdre Barrett). Nikko Tinbergen, a Nobel Prize winning ethologist, described a supernormal stimulus as a stimulus that evokes a much larger response than one that has evolutionary significance. One effect of a supernormal stimulus is that interest wanes in normal stimuli. Tinbergen studied male stickleback fish who would naturally attack a rival male that entered their territory during mating season. He created an oval object with a very red belly, more intensely red than the natural fish. The fish fiercely attacked the mock up and subsequently lost interest in attacking its real male rival. Now the supernormal stimulus evoked a reaction, but not the normal stimulus.

Modern men who grew up watching porn

 as children and teenagers have 

started a movement against it

Pornography may be just such a supernormal stimulus. With pornography use, much more of a normal stimulus may eventually be needed to achieve the response a supernormal stimulus evokes. In contrast, ordinary levels of the stimulus are no longer interesting. This may be how normal sex becomes much less interesting for porn users. The data supports this conclusion. In fact, use of pornography by one partner leads the couple to have far less sex and ultimately reduces relationship satisfaction.

There are many other factors about porn use that can threaten a relationship’s intimacy. 

First, intimacy for couples is a source of connection and communication between two people.  But when one person becomes accustomed to masturbating to porn, they are actually turning away from intimate interaction. 

Second, when watching pornography the user is in total control of the sexual experience, in contrast to normal sex in which people are sharing control with the partner. Thus a porn user may form the unrealistic expectation that sex will be under only one person’s control. 

Third, the porn user may expect that their partner will always be immediately ready for intercourse (see Come as You Are by Emily Nagoski). This is unrealistic as well. Research has revealed that genital engorgement leads to a desire for sex only 10% of the time in women and 59% of the time in men. 

Fourth, some porn users rationalize that pornography is ok if it does not involve partnered sexual acts and instead relies only on masturbation. While this may accomplish orgasm the relationship goal of intimate connection is still confounded and ultimately lost.

Worse still, many porn sites include violence toward women, the antithesis of intimate connection. Porn use can become an actual addiction with the same brain mechanism activated in other behavioral addictions, like gambling (see Your Brain on Porn by Gary Wilson).

Pornography can also lead to a decrease in relationship trust and a higher likelihood of affairs outside the relationship. Many porn sites now offer an escalation of sexual activity beyond simply viewing porn that includes actually having sex with other individuals. Finally, the support of porn use is reinforcing an industry that abuses the actors employed to create the pornography (see The Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges).

We applaud major media outlets like Time Magazine that have joined the anti-pornography movement. Their April cover story titled Porn and the Threat to Virility dives into how modern men who grew up watching porn as children and teenagers have started a movement against it, hoping to shed light on the sexual material’s power to harm Americans.

In summary, we are led to unconditionally conclude that for many reasons, pornography poses a serious threat to couple intimacy and relationship harmony. This moment calls for public discussion, and we want our readers around the world to understand what is at stake.

World-renowned researchers and clinical psychologists, Drs. John and Julie Gottman have conducted 40 years of breakthrough research with thousands of couples. They have published over 200 academic journal articles and written 46 books that have sold over a million copies in more than a dozen languages.

Thank you Drs. Gottman and Gottman, God bless you.

A Teacher & Priest and a Daycare Worker on Today's Pedophile List

Former Michigan Teacher & Priest sentenced on child sex abuse charges

Jackson, Michigan -- A former teacher and priest at Lumen Christi Catholic High School charged with sexually abusing boys will learn his fate today.

James Rapp will be sentenced this afternoon on sexual charges stemming from child abuse cases in the 1980s.

Rapp was a teacher, priest, and wrestling coach at the high school in Jackson County from 1980 through 1986, and that is when prosecutors say the abuse happened.

He was convicted in 1999 for sexually abusing boys in Oklahoma when he was a pastor there.

An investigation into Rapp for crimes in Mid-Michigan started in 2013 when two victims came forward and reported the abuse to the Jackson County Sheriff's office. Lumen Christi's principal calls the abuse a horrible tragedy.

Rapp is currently serving time on the sex charges in Oklahoma. He is now 75.

He took a plea deal in Jackson County, and in February pleaded no contest to six child sex abuse charges.

As part of that deal, he is expected to be sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison.

Sentencing is this afternoon in Jackson County Judge Susan Beebe's courtroom. We will have an update after sentencing.

Just moments ago, Rapp was sentenced to 20-40 years in prison

Jackson, Michigan

Daycare worker arrested after report of 

child sexual abuse

By ALEX GROVES / STAFF WRITER

A 20-year-old Lake Elsinore, California daycare employee was arrested on suspicion of sexual assault after a child who attended the daycare claimed to have been sexually abused.

Jacob Blas was arrested on Thursday, April 28, on suspicion of one count of aggravated sexual assault on a minor, six counts of lewd or lavicious acts with a person under 14, one count of distributing harmful matter to a minor and six counts of oral copulation with a child under 10, online jail records show.

He was booked into Southwest Detention Center in French Valley. He remained in custody there Friday with bail set at $3 million, according to the records.

Sheriff's officials said they began to investigate the allegation on Thursday. They say the alleged abuse happened in 2015 at Rea Family Daycare on Bella Aliza in Lake Elsinore.

A person who answered the phone at the daycare shortly after 11:30 a.m. Friday declined to comment on Blas' arrest and hung up.

Blas was employed by the daycare and also lived in the home where the daycare operated, according to a Sheriff's Department news release.

Officials say Lake Elsinore detectives are working with Child Protective Services and Department of Social Services since the daycare facility is licensed.

Sheriff's investigators are asking anyone with information to call Detective David Schell if they have questions or believe their child may be a victim. He can be reached at 951-245-3300. Anyonymous tips can also be made by calling 1-800-950-2444.

Men have no business working in daycares, absolutely none.

Lake Elsinore

Man jailed on child sex abuse now charged with pornography

A Shelby County man already jailed with the sexual abuse of a young girl now faces more charges.

Abraham Gonzales Hernandez, 38, was initially arrested in February on charges of second-degree sodomy and first degree rape. The arrest warrant said Hernandez "did engage in deviate sexual intercourse" with a girl who is under the age of 16 but over the age of 12. Gonzales was booked into the Shelby County Jail with bond set at $60,000.

The Westover (near Jackson) man is now charged also with possession of pornography with intent to disseminate and production of pornography, according to court records made public on Thursday. On Feb. 7, records show, Hernandez was in possession of a photograph or video of a victim under the age of 17 performing oral sex on a male, records show.

Also on Feb. 7, Hernandez did "knowingly film, print, record, photograph or otherwise produce obscene matter" of the victim "engaged in any act of sado masochistic abuse, sexual intercourse, sexual excitement, masturbation or breast nudity." The actual act depicted in the image has been redacted from court records.

Bond for Hernandez is now set at $90,000. He is set to have a court hearing in June.

Shelby County, TN

Is the Hindu god Vishnu a Pedophile?

Nepali girls 'marry' Hindu god 

to protect from widowhood

AFP 

Nepali girls marry Hindu god to protect from widowhood

Kathmandu (AFP) - It's a big day for nine-year-old Nepali schoolgirl Riddhima Shrestha and her three-year-old sister, Ishita, as they dress up in silk brocade and gold jewellery, preparing to wed a Hindu god.

The two sisters are among dozens of girls taking part in the "ihi" or "bel bibaha" ceremony -- a coming-of-age ritual practised by Kathmandu's indigenous Newar community, whose customs combine elements of Hinduism and Buddhism.

'Coming-of-age'? What age - they are still pre-pubescent? Is that marrying age in Nepal or just for Vishnu?

The two-day ceremony, usually held several times a year in the capital's historic durbar (royal) square, sees pre-pubescent girls "marry" the Hindu deity, Vishnu, symbolised by the local "bel" fruit.

The centuries-old custom is believed to protect girls from the stigma of widowhood by ensuring that a Newari woman's first husband -- the god -- will inevitably outlive her mortal spouse.

During the ceremony, girls hold the bel fruit, also known as a wood apple, in one palm and touch a statue of the god with the other, symbolically giving Vishnu their hand in marriage.

The girl's parents also secure their place in heaven by performing "kanyadaan" -- the practice of giving away one's daughter in marriage -- according to the priests who conduct the ceremony.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life'.

'No-one can come to the Father but by Me'.

"These are traditions handed down by our ancestors, we have to follow them and keep them alive. It is our culture," said Dipendra Shrestha, father of the two girls.

After the rituals end, with gifts for the bride followed by a feast for family and friends, it's back to school for third-grader Riddhima, who is the first of her classmates to go through the ceremony.

"My friends were curious about it, it was fun to tell them about it," Riddhima told AFP.

"I really enjoyed myself, I felt like a grown-up, like a bride."

Now this is a little complex. The Nepalese obviously believe in the god Vishnu, but why marry their daughters to him even before puberty? Men who marry and/or have sex with pre-pubescent children are called pedophiles. You have to wonder - if it's OK for a god, why should it not be OK for a mortal man? I know it's tradition, but maybe that tradition needs to be adjusted a little. 

If you are not Hindu, you most likely think Vishnu is an imaginary god, or even a demon dressed as an angel of light. If you suspect he is a demon, as I do, then the process of marrying a little girl to him is more than just a ritual; something spiritual happens when we open ourselves to demonic beings, and nothing good can come of it. 

I invite any Christians reading this to pray for this ritual to stop and for the real God to topple Vishnu over and reveal Himself to the Nepalese people.

Eighty People Arrested in Ontario Child-Exploitation Investigation

274 charges to be laid

MICHELLE MCQUIGGE
TORONTO — The Canadian Press

Dozens of people are facing hundreds of charges after a massive, province-wide investigation into child sexual abuse in Ontario, Canada.

Provincial police said the months-long investigation netted 80 alleged offenders who are now facing a total of 274 charges, adding more arrests are expected.

The bulk of the charges relate to sexual assault, child pornography and exploitation, but police said several counts also concern drugs and weapons.

OPP Chief Supt. Don Bell said Thursday the investigation involved collaboration with the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, United States Homeland Security, and 26 municipal police forces across Ontario.

You guys are all my heroes today. Thank you, and God bless you!

He said the wide range of ages and jurisdictions involved in the probe shines a light on how pervasive and devastating the problem is.

“The most fundamental responsibility of any society is to protect our children. Every child has the right to be nurtured and to be safe,” Bell told a news conference. “Every image of child pornography represents a child victim. Every trading or transmission of that image represents a revictimization of that child.”

From its inception in August 2006 to March 2016, Ontario’s Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation on the Internet has completed 32,808 investigations and laid 11,408 charges against 3,310 people, police said.

During that period, 870 child victims were identified in Ontario, and another 173 internationally, OPP said.

The 80 people charged in latest investigation range in age from 74 to a youth who cannot be named under the terms of the Youth Criminal Justice Act and span the province from Ottawa to Windsor.

Police said they identified 20 alleged victims over the course of the investigation who have been referred to community supports for help.

The child pornography probe also overlapped with incidents connected to human trafficking, allowing police to release nine minors who had been forced into the sex trade against their will.

Those children included 14, 15, and 16-year-olds, police said.

In one incident flagged by Toronto police, a 16-year-old girl was allegedly befriended by two men who lured her with the promise of lucrative work, then shuttled her to hotels around the city to perform sexual services.

Police allege the men also sexually assaulted her themselves in a vehicle. They are now facing a total of 15 charges and appear on the list of those arrested in the province-wide sweep, which involved executing 174 warrants.

The OPP indicated that the number of people charged is expected to rise, adding they had made additional arrests on Thursday and expected more in the coming days.

“We cannot arrest ourselves out of this phenomenon,”

OPP Chief Supt. Don Bell

But Bell said tackling the problem would involve more than simply laying charges.

“We cannot arrest ourselves out of this phenomenon,” he said. “Our community partners are extremely important. Our educators are extremely important. We have to create an awareness, and as parents we have to take ownership of our children.”

Canada's Most Prolific Pervert Costing City Big-Time

Kenneth Estabrooks case costs Saint John $446K in investigation bills

City taxpayers could be liable for millions more in settlements

according to lawyer John McKiggan

By Connell Smith, CBC News 

Former Saint John police officer Kenneth Estabrooks may have abused 263 children and youth (CBC)

The small City of Saint John New Brunswick, Canada has paid $446,000 to a private investigation firm working on the Kenneth Estabrooks case and taxpayers could be exposed to millions more in compensation settlements, according to a lawyer working for alleged victims.

Estabrooks was a city police officer who was found guilty in 1999 of indecent assault against four children in cases dating back to the 1950s.

In October 2012, Saint John council authorized $100,000 to have Investigative Solutions Network investigate other potential abuse cases.

In September 2013, private investigator Dave Perry, ISN's co-chief executive officer, reported that as many of 263 youths may have been sexually abused by Estabrooks over a three-decade period.

Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada - a city of about 68,000

By that point council had authorized three additional payments totaling $272,000 to be made to Perry's firm.

But a right to information request filed by CBC News reveals more than $100,000 in further payments to the firm were approved directly by the city manager's office.

ISN's Perry declined an invitation to discuss his company's billing.

Almost all of the money was taken from the municipality's human resources budget.

Of the $479,000 invoiced by ISN, $33,000 was recovered through HST rebates.

Estabrooks admitted in 1975 to sexually abusing children.

He wasn't fired or charged. Instead, he was transferred out of the police department into the city works department, where he was in charge of maintenance for city vehicles until he retired.

A later investigation determined he continued to abuse children after the transfer.

He was sentenced to six years in prison and died in 2005.

Class action lawsuit

A class action lawsuit was filed against the city in December 2013.

Robert Hayes filed the notice of action and statement of claim with the Court of Queen's Bench on behalf of himself and others who may have been abused by Estabrooks.

Lawyer John McKiggan has filed a class action on behalf of a Saint John man and, potentially, others who allege they were sexually abused by Kenneth Estabrooks (McKiggan Hebert Lawyers)

John McKiggan, the lawyer for Hayes and other plaintiffs, said should the class action be certified and the city is later found liable, the municipality may not have enough insurance to cover the settlements.

"How much insurance coverage the city actually has is an open question at this point," said McKiggan.

"I'm not even sure the city has the answer to that."

McKiggan said the amount of insurance coverage available depends on the year in which a victim was abused.

In some cases, claims could be made against insurance policies taken out by the city in the 1950s.

If compensation is awarded to a victim, and there is not enough money in the policy for the year the abuse occurred, city taxpayers would have to make up the difference.

McKiggan said in some years the city took out what are known as "diminishing reserve" policies that set a fixed limit on the amount that could be paid out in total claims.

"If the insurance policy limits in this case are not sufficient to meet the claims, the city has some pretty significant potential exposure," said McKiggan.

McKiggan points to a Nova Scotia case involving the former residents of the Home for Coloured Children, a closed Halifax orphanage, where a settlement agreement totaled $29 million.

Home for Coloured Children, Halifax, Nova Scotia

(I grew up about 30 miles east of Halifax and drove by that old orphanage hundreds of times. It always captured my attention as I wondered what went on in that dismal looking place.)

An aide to Saint John Mayor Mel Norton said the city does not comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

British Sailor Has Gang-Rape Charges Dismissed in Canada

British sailor accused of gang rape at Halifax base has sexual assault charge dropped

Criag Stoner walked out of Dartmouth court Friday a free man

By Cassie Williams, CBC News 

Craig Stoner walked out of Dartmouth provincial court on Friday with his legal fight behind him. (Blair Rhodes/CBC)

One of the four British sailors accused of gang raping a young woman at a military base in Halifax last year has had his charges dropped.

Craig Stoner walked out of Dartmouth provincial court on Friday with his legal fight behind him. He is no longer facing charges of sexual assault causing bodily harm and sexual assault committed with one or more other persons.

In court, the Crown said after reviewing the evidence, there wasn't a reasonable prospect of conviction against Stoner.

Stoner's lawyer, Luke Craggs, said his client is "pleased that this saga is concluded."

"I think we saw, early on, that this is where things would end for him," he said.

"The reality is, he's been labelled a rapist in the international media and that's a label that he's going to have to work hard to shake off, but now he can put this behind him and get on with the rest of his life."

Simon Radford, Joshua Finbow, and Darren Smalley are each still facing a charge sexual assault causing bodily harm and one count of sexual assault committed with one or more other persons.

When they were arrested last April, the men were in Nova Scotia to participate in a hockey tournament with local Armed Forces personnel. The Crown alleges they participated in a group sexual assault April 10, 2015 in a barracks at CFB Shearwater.

The preliminary inquiry for the other three sailors continues.

Oklahoma Court of Appeals Upholds Bizarre Lower Court Ruling on Rape

Ruling is sparking outrage among critics who say the

judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming

and buying outdated notions about rape

An Oklahoma court has stunned local prosecutors with a declaration that state law doesn’t criminalize oral sex with a victim who is completely unconscious.



The ruling, a unanimous decision by the state’s criminal appeals court, is sparking outrage among critics who say the judicial system was engaged in victim-blaming and buying outdated notions about rape.

But legal experts and victims’ advocates said they viewed the ruling as a sign of something larger: the troubling gaps that still exist between the nation’s patchwork of laws and evolving ideas about rape and consent.

The case involved allegations that a 17-year-old boy assaulted a girl, 16, after volunteering to give her a ride home. The two had been drinking in a Tulsa park with a group of friends when it became clear that the girl was badly intoxicated. Witnesses recalled that she had to be carried into the defendant’s car. Another boy, who briefly rode in the car, recalled her coming in and out of consciousness.

The boy later brought the girl to her grandmother’s house. Still unconscious, the girl was taken to a hospital, where a test put her blood alcohol content above .34. She awoke as staff were conducting a sexual assault examination.

Tests would later confirm that the young man’s DNA was found on the back of her leg and around her mouth. The boy claimed to investigators that the girl had consented to performing oral sex. The girl said she didn’t have any memories after leaving the park. Tulsa County prosecutors charged the young man with forcible oral sodomy.

OK, first time I've heard that charge.

But the trial judge dismissed the case. And the appeals court ruling, on 24 March, affirmed that prosecutors could not apply the law to a victim who was incapacitated by alcohol.

“Forcible sodomy cannot occur where a victim is so intoxicated as to be completely unconscious at the time of the sexual act of oral copulation,” the decision read. Its reasoning, the court said, was that the statute listed several circumstances that constitute force, and yet was silent on incapacitation due to the victim drinking alcohol. “We will not, in order to justify prosecution of a person for an offense, enlarge a statute beyond the fair meaning of its language.”

Why not, if it is clearly inadequate?

Benjamin Fu, the Tulsa County district attorney leading the case, said the ruling had him “completely gobsmacked”.

“The plain meaning of forcible oral sodomy, of using force, includes taking advantage of a victim who was too intoxicated to consent,” Fu said. “I don’t believe that anybody, until that day, believed that the state of the law was that this kind of conduct was ambiguous, much less legal. And I don’t think the law was a loophole until the court decided it was.” To focus on why the victim was unable to consent, he continued, puts the victim at fault.

But several legal experts declined to fault the appeals court, saying instead that the ruling should be a wake-up call for legislators to update Oklahoma’s laws.

Michelle Anderson, the dean of the CUNY School of Law who has written extensively about rape law, called the ruling “appropriate” but the law “archaic”.

“This is a call for the legislature to change the statute, which is entirely out of step with what other states have done in this area and what Oklahoma should do,” she said. “It creates a huge loophole for sexual abuse that makes no sense,” she said.

Jennifer Gentile Long, who leads a group, AEquitas, that guides prosecutors in sexual and domestic violence cases, agreed. She said the Oklahoma law was an example of a gulf that still exists in some places between the law and evolving notions around consent and sexual agency.

Oklahoma has a separate rape statute that protects victims who were too intoxicated to consent to vaginal or anal intercourse, Long noted. But “there are still gaps in the ways laws are written that allow some cases to fall through the cracks,” she said. “This case” – because it did not involve vaginal rape but an oral violation – “seems to be one of them”.

In the wake of the ruling, Fu has said he will push for lawmakers to change the code. Many states have engaged in a broad overhaul of their rape laws in recent years, Anderson said, part of a movement to fall in line with the modern understanding of rape.

“There is a recognition that social mores have changed, that the law should now try to protect sexual autonomy as opposed to sexual morality,” she said. Often, the law changes after an outcry over unpopular court rulings.

The Oklahoma appeals court declined to make the ruling a precedent. But Fu said he has learned that other defendants are nevertheless making the same argument in other parts of Oklahoma to avoid charges.

The defendant’s attorney, Shannon McMurray, was not available for comment. She told Oklahoma Watch, which was first to report the ruling, that prosecutors were clearly in the wrong to charge the young man with forcible sodomy, and not a lesser crime of unwanted touching.

“There was absolutely no evidence of force or him doing anything to make this girl give him oral sex,” McMurray said, “other than she was too intoxicated to consent.”

Unbelievable! There was penetration (oral) and there was no consent! Isn't that the very definition of rape? Good grief! Use some common sense, judges. I mean the girl was stupid to get passed-out drunk, but that shouldn't make her fair game for rape.

Retired Republican House Speaker Called 'Serial Child Molester'

Dennis Hastert, once the longest-serving Republican House speaker in U.S. history, was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Chicago to 15 months in prison in a hush-money case related to Hastert's sexual abuse of teen boys decades ago.

U.S. District Judge Thomas M. Durkin called Hastert a "serial child molester" and said he would have given a lengthier prison term if not for Hastert's age and declining health.

Throughout the judge's remarks, Hastert sat in his wheelchair without expression, glasses low on his nose. At one point, as Durkin made it clear that probation was not in the cards, Hastert clasped his hands in front of his face and dropped his eyes.

He showed no outward reaction to the sentence. As the dozens of spectators filed from the courtroom, Hastert remained motionless with his mouth downturned, not speaking to anyone.

Shortly before learning his sentence, Hastert had admitted for the first time that he sexually abused boys decades ago when he was the wrestling coach for Yorkville High School.

Hastert, who has been hobbled by a stroke and other health issues, quivered as he was helped from his wheelchair by his attorneys and leaned heavily on a walker as he approached the lectern at the front of the courtroom. In a raspy but firm voice, Hastert apologized to those he victimized, saying he "mistreated athletes."

U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon addresses the news media after former U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert was sentenced to 15 months in prison on April 27, 2016. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune)

"What I did was wrong and I regret it," Hastert said. "They looked to me, and I took advantage of them."

Durkin then asked directly if Hastert sexually abused certain victims. Hastert said he did not recall molesting Scott Cross, who moments earlier had testified that Hastert performed a sex act on him in an empty locker room when he was 17. "But I accept his statement," Hastert said.

Asked by the judge about another alleged victim, Stephen Reinboldt, Hastert called it "a different situation," but he said he was not denying the testimony of Reinboldt's sister, Jolene Burdge, who had testified about the abuse moments earlier.

"So you did sexually abuse him?" the judge asked.

"Yes," Hastert said.

The sentencing hearing completed the stunning downfall of Hastert, who rose from humble beginnings as a schoolteacher and coach to become the third-highest elected leader in the country, a man who was revered in the small towns of Kendall County he called home.

That legacy was shattered in May 2015 when federal prosecutors brought the stunning charges that Hastert had illegally withdrawn $1.7 million in hush money from various bank accounts to keep a former acquaintance quiet about "misconduct" in his past.

But it wasn't until earlier this month that prosecutors detailed in a 26-page sentencing filing that Hastert had abused at least five teenage students connected to the Yorkville wrestling team in the 1960s and 1970s.

One of them was Scott Cross. On Wednesday, an emotional Cross, 53, a younger brother of former Illinois House Republican leader Tom Cross, said he decided to go public so that his children and others would know there's an alternative to staying silent. As painful as his decision was, he said, "staying silent was worse."

Scott Cross' brother, a former Kendall County lawmaker who considered Hastert a political mentor, accompanied his brother to the sentencing.

Hastert, 74, is expected to surrender to a medical facility in the federal penitentiary system at an undetermined date.

Hastert's defense had sought a sentence of probation, a punishment Durkin said would not be appropriate in a case of this magnitude.

In lengthy remarks, the judge made much of the fact that when the FBI confronted Hastert about hundreds of thousands of cash withdrawals from banks, he tried to blame another sex abuse victim, identified only as Individual A, claiming he was blackmailing him.

"That's a big problem for you," Durkin said.

Prosecutors said in court that Individual A did not commit any crimes, and a lawsuit by Individual A said Hastert offered to pay $3.5 million for restitution and to keep the sexual abuse a secret.

The judge spent several minutes speaking about Hastert's victims, praising Cross' "incredible courage" for testifying Wednesday.

"He didn't have to do that," Durkin said.

The judge, also singled out Burdge, who had testified that her brother had told her of Hastert's sex abuse before his death in 1995.

Durkin told Burdge she could rest assured that people finally believed her.

Burdge nodded, smiled sadly in the courtroom gallery and whispered, "Thank you."

Individual A, whom Hastert paid $1.7 million to keep quiet, did not appear in court but delivered a written statement for the judge to consider. In the statement, Individual A said the sexual abuse had started with a massage, a similar account to other victims'.

Individual A was then 14, the judge noted.

"Can you imagine the whispering and the finger-pointing," the judge said, if there were rumors of "the town hero molesting you?"

Iowa Man Sentenced to 60 Years for Child Sex Abuse

APRIL 26, 2016 BY PAT CURTIS

The Sentence

A northeast Iowa man could be spending the rest of his life in prison for sexually abusing children.

Thirty-six-year-old Leroy Kula Junior of Arlington was sentenced Monday to 60 years in prison. He was arrested in October of 2014 and later convicted of two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

Fayette County Sheriff’s officials said the victims were all girls between the ages of 4 and 6.


The Arrest

Nov 3, 2014
An Arlington man has been arrested for sexually abusing two girls. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office conducted a search warrant at the home of Leroy Kula Jr. at 861 Fairfield Street following a week-long investigation.

Kula was taken into custody on Friday after the investigation revealed he had sexually abused two girls under the age of 12. Authorities say the abuse happened numerous times at Kula’s home this past summer. 

DHS has been called in to assist with finding placement of the children in his care. The investigation continues and the computers seized from Kula’s home will be sent to the DCI Crimes Against Children Unit in Cedar Rapids for a forensic search. Kula has been charged with two counts of Second Degree Sexual Abuse and more charges could follow. He remains in the Fayette County Jail on 75-thousand dollars cash bond. (Photo courtesy of Fayette County Sheriff’s Office)


The Trial

7 Jan 2016
WEST UNION, Iowa (KCRG-TV9) -- A judge will decide if Leroy Kula, Jr. is guilty of second-degree sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of a minor.

The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports Kula's two-day bench trial wrapped up Thursday in Fayette County District Court.

Kula, 35, faces two counts of second-degree sexual abuse and two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. Each charge is a felony, and a conviction could mean up to 70 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Kula performed sex acts on at least two of the girls and recorded videos and took photos of at least two. Authorities said the girls were three girls 4, 5 and 6 years old at the time.

Officers searched Kula's home in Arlington on October 31, 2014, and found more than 200 VHS tapes and "hundreds of CDs and DVDs," as well as digital cameras, storage devices and a recording system.

Kula's attorney said police acknowledge Kula was not the only man in the house. He also noted variations in the girls' stories and that no corroboration exists for the inconsistent testimony that was vague and without detail.

Obviously, the Judge found him guilty. Pretty hard not to when you have video-taped evidence.

The dummy should have plea-bargained, he could have gotten off with probation. 

How is it these children were in his care, were they his, if they weren't why wasn't someone monitoring them, and why were children placed in a home with 2 men?

LA Judge Refuses To Dismiss Child Sexual Abuse Case Against Bill Cosby

Actor Bill Cosby  in Norristown, Pennsylvania February 2, 2016.  REUTERS/Clem Murray/Pool

REUTERS/CLEM MURRAY/POOL

The lawyer for a woman accusing comedian Bill Cosby of sexually abusing her as a child said that a Los Angeles County judge on Tuesday refused to dismiss the case after Cosby's lawyers had argued to have it thrown out.

Gloria Allred, who represents accuser Judy Huth, said in a statement that she hoped the suit would be "permitted to proceed to trial and should not be dismissed."

Huth, now in her 50s, sued Cosby in December 2014, alleging that he plied her with alcohol and molested her during an encounter at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles in 1974, when she was 15.

Still trying to figure out what a 15 year old was doing in the Playboy Mansion. I think I know why most people go there, but a 15 year old?

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Frances Kerry)

The Sad Story Of Child Sex Abuse In Hawaii

Child sex abuse lawsuits have sparked

reforms and heightened awareness

But for victims, the pain lingers

By Denby Fawcett 

The Diocese of Honolulu is expected to spend $20 million to settle law suits

The Hawaii deadline for victims of child sex abuse to sue was Sunday. 

In the four years leading up to the deadline, about 150 people filed legal complaints saying they were sexually molested as children. Most victims accused Catholic priests of being their abusers.

But not all were priests. Teachers and other professionals also have been named in the lawsuits. Twenty-six plaintiffs say the now-deceased Kamehameha Schools psychiatrist Robert McCormick Browne drugged and sexually molested them as children when the school sent them to Browne for therapy.

Hawaii lawmakers made it possible for sexual abuse victims to seek justice by extending the deadline for civil suits in 2012 and again in 2014 until the April 24 cutoff.

Most of the alleged incidents happened between the early 1950s and late 1980s.

Attorney Randall Rosenberg, who has filed suits for 56 claimants, says: “This is just the tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of others out there in Hawaii who have been abused. And now with the deadline passed we are unable to help them.”

Rosenberg and other attorneys say they have learned a lot since they began listening to clients recount their betrayal by adults they trusted.

Rosenberg says what surprised him is how widespread child sex abuse is — not just in the Catholic Church but also at other places charged with protecting children in their care.

“It happens at schools, doctors’ offices, in Boy Scout troops, family homes, karate dojos, in churches, with foster parents — anywhere an adult is left alone with a child. We have to do more to stop it,” he says.

Rosenberg has reached mediated settlements in 39 of the legal complaints he has filed — 23 with the Honolulu Diocese and 16 with other institutions, including the Mormon Church and the Salvation Army.

But for many of the victims, even those who have received large financial settlements, the pain lingers.

A Victim’s Story

One of them says he still feels remorse and guilt about not rescuing a former classmate at St. Stephen Diocesan Seminary in Kaneohe, who he says was ushered into the bedroom of now-deceased priest William Queenan each night to be sodomized. In a phone conversation for this column, he started crying when he talked about it.

“It was so sad watching him come out of the room in the morning. I wish I had stuck up for him and I still wonder what became of him. As runty, bullied and timid as I was then, he was even more so. He was gentle and creative and had great skills as a sketch artist,” says MG, as he is identified in his lawsuit.

MG says he, too, was molested by Father Queenan. Another former seminary student has also sued, saying Queenan molested him when he was 14.

Most of the plaintiffs have sued anonymously as John or Jane Doe or using their initials to maintain their privacy.

MG was sexually abused before he enrolled at St. Stephen. When he was a 12-year-old altar boy at Good Shepherd Church in Honomu on Hawaii Island he says a drunken Maryknoll priest named Francis Daubert got him alone in a back room of the church where he tied him up, tortured and sodomized him for five hours before he could escape.


Attorney Randall Rosenberg says abuse cases are more prevalent than many people think and involve many organizations that work with children.

In the last two weeks before the deadline to sue, attorney Rosenberg says he took on 15 new cases and Kailua attorney Mark Gallagher accepted 12 new clients.

Rosenberg and Gallagher have filed the most child sex abuse complaints in the past four years, since the time frame to file suit was expanded.

Gallagher sued on behalf of 61 clients. Fifty-two of his cases have been against the Diocese of Honolulu. So far, he has reached mediated settlements for 27 clients.

Gallagher, who was raised as a Catholic, says what surprised him was the support of the Catholic community, even by hard core church-goers, as he filed more and more lawsuits.

“Most of them have been solidly in the camp of the survivors. They want the right thing to be done,” he says. “A lot of them had known this was going on. They knew something wasn’t right. I was amazed by their support although I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised because the church teaches people to do the right thing and the right thing is to support the children.”

Rosenberg says the deadline has been helpful because it spurred more victims to come forward, but says he wishes it could have been extended to help other victims still wavering about suing.

He says he had a client who changed his mind five times before he decided to go forward.

Dodging The Police

One troubling fact that emerged as more and more plaintiffs sued is that churches and schools rarely, if ever, informed the police after they found out about the sexual assaults. Gallagher says institutions and individuals have a duty to inform the police immediately when there are claims of sexual abuse made by children.

“It is essential because what we are talking about here is a crime. Sex assault is a crime. It is immoral for institutions to try to protect themselves and the perpetrators,” Gallagher says.

Laurie LaGrange, a public relations specialist with the Diocese of Honolulu, says, “After the conference of Catholic bishops in 1992, it became mandatory to report incidents of sex assault immediately to the police.”

But LaGrange was unable to provide numbers of how many cases the diocese had ever reported to the Honolulu Police Department.


Mark Gallagher is representing dozens of victims in cases against the Catholic Church.

Rosenberg says that in a September 2015 deposition, taken in the mediated settlement cases, Vicar General Gary Secor of the Honolulu Diocese claimed it was church policy to report child sex abuse to law enforcement but Secor could not recall a single instance when church personnel actually had done so.

Also chilling to learn from the lawsuits is that some of the a victims were later abused by psychologists or priests they went to for help after suffering sexual attacks.

A plaintiff known as MC says that after his adoptive father physically and sexually abused him when he was 13, he was sent by state Child Protective Services to psychologist Rob Wetzel for counseling and treatment.

The suit claims Wetzel immediately began “grooming him to accept sexual abuse” and that by the time the victim turned 17, Wetzel allegedly began violating him on a regular basis. “Such abuse included kissing, fondling, oral sex and sodomy,” according to the court filing.

The suit says Wetzel used his position and practice to prey upon teenaged boys.

Wetzel was not immediately available to comment. I called his office but his receptionist told me he wasn’t there. When I told her it was about a lawsuit filed against him she said she would have him call me. He hadn’t called as of late Monday.

In another twist, Father James Jackson, a Maryknoll priest accused of sexually preying on seven boys, was sent to Kuakini Hospital by the church to be “cured” by psychiatrist Dr. Robert McCormick Browne — the same Dr. Browne who was later accused by 26 plaintiffs of being a pedophile who drugged and masturbated them when they were children.

In 1991, Browne shot himself in the head after one of his young victims threatened to expose him.

Joseph Ferrario, who later became the Bishop of Hawaii, was accused in lawsuits of sexually attacking two children — Mark Pinkosh and David Figueroa — who came to him for help after they said they were raped by Father Joseph Henry of St. Anthony Church in Kailua. Ferrario died in 2003.

Henry is the priest who has been accused by the most alleged victims. More than 20 men have named Henry as their childhood attacker.

Interestingly in one of the complaints against Ferrario, Father Thomas Doyle submitted a report saying that before Ferrario became Honolulu bishop, the Vatican knew he was alleged to be a pedophile.

Vatican aAppoints gay pedophile as Bishop

“The Vatican was informed that there were serious allegations against Ferrario, not only of homosexual behavior in gay bars with age-appropriate men but also with under-aged boys. What the officials in the Vatican thought about these allegations is not known. However they chose to ignore the warnings and appointed Ferrario as bishop,” says Doyle.

At the time, Doyle was the secretary canonist at the Vatican Embassy and in charge of managing the process in which candidates for bishop were vetted.

Vicar General Gary Secor in an emailed statement says, “We are not privy to what the Vatican knew or didn’t know before or when Father Joseph Ferrario was appointed Bishop of Honolulu.”

Ferrario has been accused by six of the plaintiffs of being a pedophile. He maintained his innocence until his death. And without the lawsuits, he probably would have remained for eternity a respected public figure.

“The church successfully waged a public relations campaign to destroy David Figueroa (Ferrario’s first public accuser) and preserve Ferrario,”Gallagher says.

Case After Case Makes Similar Accusations

Some of the new cases filed before the deadline are horrific in their accusations.

One of Rosenberg’s recent suits names George DeCosta, a former Hawaii Island priest. The victim accuses DeCosta of anally raping him in 1991, when he was a 5-year-old preschool student at Hale O Kamalii School in Hilo.

The school was on the grounds of Malia Puka O Ka Lani Church where DeCosta was the parish priest.

DeCosta allegedly was asked to look after the little boy when he disturbed the other children during nap time but instead DeCosta allegedly took him into a room in a church building and abused him.


George DeCosta is one of the defendants in a slew of sex abuse cases against Catholic priests.
DeCosta has been accused of preying on nine children under his care. He maintains he is innocent.
Courtesy: Randall Rosenberg

The suit says after DeCosta forced the plaintiff to the ground to rape him, “the crying plaintiff said he was going to tell his parents. DeCosta slapped the plaintiff in the back of the head and said if he did, his parents would be killed.”

The plaintiff is a 29-year-old man now living in Portland, Oregon.

DeCosta was accused by others of sexually abusing them in the 1960s when he was working at Damien Memorial High School in Kalihi as a religion teacher.

The Honolulu Diocese says in April 2009 Bishop Larry Silva suspended Father DeCosta’s right to celebrate Mass and the sacraments, and later at the Bishop’s request, the Vatican ordered DeCosta permanently removed from public ministry and from any contact with minors.

Nine plaintiffs have accused DeCosta of being a pedophile yet his name will never appear on the Hawaii sex offender registry because the church has settled the civil complaints against him. He has never been convicted of a crime.

DeCosta has maintained his innocence.

Hula fanciers know DeCosta as the chaplain of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival, where he continued giving the official opening prayer up until 2011, even after he had been told by the bishop he could no longer officially act as a priest.

Cost Of Lawsuits
The Diocese of Honolulu is expected to have to pay more than $20 million for the mediated settlements, most of it out of its own pocket because the Diocese is in litigation with its insurance company which has refused to pay for the settlements.

Vicar General Secor says the Diocese has had to sell some real estate and has also used credit secured by mortgages to help pay for the settlements. He says no parish assets have been sold or mortgaged.

He says the outlay of cash has also forced the indefinite postponement of diocesan projects including the remodeling the Kamiano Center, a gathering place for meetings next to Our Lady of Peace Cathedral. He says staffing is frozen and new programs have been halted.

In the end, what difference did the lawsuits make?

Attorney Gallagher says a benefit is that the balance has shifted from institutions covering up sexual abuse to protect predators and reputation of the church and other institutions to instead making the protection of children paramount.

“I think it has done a lot of good,” says Gallagher.

But at the end of the day, the story is still sad. Many abuse survivors will spend the rest of their lives battling alcohol and drug addiction and an inability to form adult relationships.

“They will never get to live their lives they way they were supposed to,” says Rosenberg.

Pedophilia taints not only the victims but everyone else in its wake.

Families are still racked with guilt, continually ruminating about what they should have done to protect their children from harm.

Many upstanding and honorable priests are viewed with suspicion today even though their lives have been blameless.

And there are the people still out there who knew the abuse was happening and yet to this day remain silent. They know who they are and they know their silence made it possible for the pedophiles to keep molesting and raping children. That is their shame.

Incestuous Serial Rapist Gets NO Jail Time

Man gets 10 years probation for child sex abuse, son suicides

By AARON DAVIS

An 83-year-old man initially charged with the continuous sexual abuse of a child under the age of 14 instead plead guilty to a lesser charge and received probation in Randall County Court in Texas, on Wednesday.

Donald Floyd Seager, 83, plead guilty to the charge of lesser included aggravated sexual assault of a child and received 10 years probation. This was the second time that Seager was indicted on charges of the sexual assault of a minor.

“After consultation with our victim and professionals involved in our case, it was decided that the result that was offered to Mr. Seager was the best for all parties involved,” said Robert Love, assistant district attorney for Randall County. “What the case and evidence will allow you to do, and what you would like to do, are different things.”

A 2014 court document filed by the Randall County District Attorney’s office expressed an intent to pursue charges against Seager for 29 sexually-related offenses against 11 children.

Father & son perverts
Court documents and statements claim that Donald Floyd Seager, along with his son, Ian David Seager, 59, sexually assaulted the victim, who is a family member, over a 5-year period. The statement alleges that Ian Seager would offer alcohol and drugs to the victim and Donald Floyd Seager would offer ice cream and money.

Donald Floyd Seager was indicted on two charges on Dec. 4 of 2013: Aggravated sexual assault of a child, and continuous sexual abuse of a victim younger than 14. The first charge occurred on Mar. 24, 1989, and that case against Seager was dismissed in April of 2015.

“It was just barely outside the statute of limitations and it was dismissed,” Love said.

Although normally the statute of limitations extends 10 years from when the victim turns 18, the amended statute of limitations law only came into effect in 1997. Seager’s attorney, Cristy Jo McElroy, was able to get the first dismissed since the assault happened in 1989 and the new statute of limitations did not apply. McElroy did not return multiple calls for comment.

There should be no statute of limitations for child sex abuse!

The second indictment for the continuous sexual assault of a minor under the age of 14 concerned the abuse of one victim by both Seager and his son, Ian. The son was initially indicted on five counts of sexual assault of a child and one count of indecency with a child.

“Ian (Seager) committed suicide on the evening before our trial began in 2015,” Love said.

Donald Floyd Seager’s plea deal includes 10 years probation and $1,000 fine.

“The plea bargains are the most difficult part and they are never what anybody wants,” Love said. “Unless he violates his probation or the judge revokes his probation he will not serve time.”

But surely, Mr. Love, you could have done better than that. A year or two off the streets would probably spare a child or two. Now he is on the honor system - and pedophiles don't have any honor. You have to wait until he abuses another child, and gets caught, before he gets any jail time. 

Love said that Seager will have to register as a sex offender and cannot live within 1,000-feet of a school, day care or church. He cannot do drugs and has to report weekly to a community supervision officer, instead of reporting monthly, which is customary in the supervision of a sex offender, Love said. Seager must attend and complete a sex offender counseling program and cannot view any pornography. He is not allowed to go within 1,000 feet of where children gather, such as schools, pools or video arcades. He is prohibited from contacting any person under the age of 17 and cannot use the internet to access obscene material or commercial networking sites.

And, of course, he will obey all those rules because he has to call his probation officer once a week!

Seager was not listed on the sex offender registry as of Apr. 25, By the terms of his probation he must register as a sex offender within seven days of being found guilty.