FB photos lead to conviction - Alabama
Woman rents daughter to pervert - Alabama
Gay jamboree owner nailed for historical CSA - Maryland
Woman, 2 men sentenced 4 group sex with 16y/o - Florida
Waco man indicted for continuous CSA - Texas
Owatonna man on trial for continuous CSA - Minnesota
Church nursery worker charge with continuous CSA - Texas
Tulsa woman charged for permitting CSA in home - Oklahoma
Man charged with indecent behavior with juvenile - Louisiana
Facebook photos lead authorities to new abuse by 65-year-old convicted Blount County sex offender
By Carol Robinson al.com
A Blount County man who one year ago pleaded guilty to sex abuse of a young girl has done so again, a second crime that was uncovered when authorities noticed something amiss in photos posted on the suspect's Facebook timeline.
On Tuesday, 65-year-old Donald Fred Stallings, of Remlap, was sentenced to 10 years in prison on two counts of sexual abuse of a child under the age of 12. In January of 2016, he pleaded guilty to the same crime involving his first victim.
Stallings was arrested nearly three years ago - in February 2013 - on one count of the crime. Because of the victim's age, details of the crime have not been made public.
His guilty plea last year happened as the jury sat in the jury room waiting to hear opening statements. "When I notified the victim, who was waiting in my office, that she would not have to testify and that her perpetrator had admitted his guilty, she broke down in tears,'' Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey said following Stallings' guilty plea last year. "She said, 'I feel like a champion.'''
In late 2015, while preparing for trial, prosecutors came across photographs on Stallings' Facebook page that made them do a double-take. "I kept noticing a young girl in several photographs that just looked uncomfortable,'' Casey said Wednesday. "Stallings was always right next to the girl and had his hand on the girl and she had a look on her face that bothered me. I just couldn't shake it."
Well done, Pamela. God bless you.
Casey brought the photos to the attention of Blount County Sheriff's Office child sex abuse Investigator Sue Ashworth, who had done the initial investigation into Stallings, and asked her to look into identifying the child. The results of Ashworth's investigation were turned over to Casey's office.
The district attorney then notified Stallings' attorney that she intended to also charge him with the abuse of the second child. His sentencing on the first guilty plea had been delayed because of the second investigation, as well as the death of Stallings' attorney, Casey said.
On Tuesday, Stallings entered a guilty plea to charges that he abused a second child under the age of 12, that child being the young girl Casey noticed in the photos. "Part of it was gut instinct,'' Casey said. "It is hard to put into words."
Stallings has been in the Blount County Correctional Facility since January 2016. Under Alabama law, Stallings will not be eligible for parole and must serve the mandatory minimum of 10 years. "This is a reminder to our community,'' Casey said, "to report things that just don't seem right and to follow their gut."
Remlap, AL
And just 12 miles up the road...
Man, 44, paid woman to bring her young daughter to him for sex, records state
By Carol Robinson al.com
A 44-year-old man is facing multiple felony charges in Blount County after authorities say he repeatedly had sexual relations with a young girl and paid the girl's mother to bring him to her.
Rama Raji Erramraju, who also goes by the name Sonny, was arrested Jan. 11, according to Blount County court records made public Tuesday. He remains jailed without bond at the Blount County Correctional Facility.
According to affidavits in the case and warrants against Erramraju, he engaged in sexual contact on multiple occasions between June 2015 and August 2016. The victim in the case is girl under the age of 12, and the reported crimes happened in room 106 at the Covered Bridge Inn in Oneonta where Erramraju lived.
The victim, records show, was brought to Erramraju by the girl's mother and Erramraju paid her for doing so. Additional details weren't available.
Erramraju is charged with human trafficking, enticing a child for immoral purposes, sex abuse of a child under the age of 12 and facilitating the travel of a child for an unlawful sex act. All four of the charges are felonies.
"I commend the work of Blount County Sheriff's Investigator Sue Ashworth in her investigation, and the Oneonta Police Department in their assistance in apprehending the subject,'' said Blount County District Attorney Pamela Casey.
The investigation is ongoing and additional charges could be filed.
Oneonta, AL
Prosecutors: OC Jamboree child sexual abuse
dates to 1990
Henry Culvyhouse
Federal prosecutors said the former owner of the OC Jamboree (Ocean City, Maryland) abused at least five boys going to back 1990.
The allegations were made in a Jan. 15 motion filed by U.S. Attorneys attempting to limit certain evidence from being introduced at the Feb. 27 trial of David Edward Weatherholtz, 57, of Berlin. Prosecutors are asking a U.S. District Court judge to limit evidence that could potentially identify the five victims in the case, in addition to other legal issues.
Weatherholtz was arrested and charged in December 2014 following an online sting by the Worcester County Sheriff's Office in which an investigator posed as a 13-year-old boy. The building of the now defunct theater in West Ocean City has since been sold at auction.
Weatherholtz is accused of using his position as a teacher and mentor to gain the trust of his victims, then using alcohol to get them to comply with his sexual demands, the motion states.
In August 2016, prosecutors said an employee found a box addressed to the suspect's dog at the old theater located at 12600 Marjan Lane in Ocean City. DVDs, two VHS tapes and papers were found inside the box, which was promptly turned over to law enforcement, according to the motion.
Federal law enforcement found footage of Weatherholtz sexually abusing two boys on the tapes, prosecutors said. The evidence is anticipated to prove Weatherholtz abused the two victims in 1990, the motion states. Other evidence recovered in the case could show Weatherholtz sexually abused two other boys between 2008 and 2012, according to court records.
Originally charged with six federal offenses relating to the possession and production of child pornography, a federal grand jury added an additional 10 charges against Weatherholtz in November 2016, including attempted enticement. If convicted on the enticement charge, Weatherholtz could face a lifetime prison sentence.
Manning sentenced to 25 years in child-sex case
Emma Kennedy, Pensacola News Journal
Emotional pleas for leniency from a child victim at Leah Manning's sentencing had little bearing on the 25-year prison sentence Judge Joel Boles imposed Wednesday.
"You have done irreparable harm to them," Boles told Manning during the hearing.
Manning was charged with close to a dozen child-sex offenses stemming from a period of time where she and husband Doug Manning engaged in sexual activities with multiple teenage girls, including Manning's own daughters.
Both Leah and Doug Manning were charged for the offenses, as were two former Escambia County Sheriff's Office deputies, Mark Gene Smith and Walter Michael Thomas. Smith was found not guilty on all charges in 2016.
The Mannings had previously said they were in an "open marriage," and were accused, among other child-sex abuse instances, of engaging in a "foursome" with a 16-year-old female victim in 2014.
During Thomas' trial in August, Leah Manning testified that her husband had formed a relationship with one of the minor victims and she believed he was more affectionate to the child than her, so she became jealous. Leah Manning also had frequent sexual interactions with Thomas, which made Doug Manning jealous. The solution, according to testimony during that trial, was for all four involved to have sex together.
One of Manning's daughters spoke during sentencing Wednesday, pleading with Boles to lessen her mom's prison sentence to allow for the family to rebuild its relationships.
The victim, now 18, cried as she took the podium in defense of her mother, placing the blame on Doug Manning and her mother's own childhood abuse.
"Doug Manning made my mom as much a victim as we were, my mom is not what everyone says she is," she said.
Manning herself spoke during the sentencing hearing, saying when she was first arrested she was angry with her daughters about the charges, but that anger has since dissipated.
Manning said she wants the cycle of abuse to end with her daughters, and she asked the judge for the chance to work through the situation outside of prison, a plea that Boles denied.
"You can't be mad at the girls," Boles told Manning. "I know you say you're not now, but it's amazing to me that you ever thought that. We're here with a situation where you have girls who say they need you and want you but at the same time you're a danger to them."
Boles sentenced Manning to 11 state prison sentences ranging in time from one to 25 years in what he said is one of "the most egregious cases" he's ever seen. The sentences will run concurrently.
Upon her release from state prison, Manning will be on lifetime sex offender probation and will be listed as a sexual predator.
Manning mouthed the words "I love you" to her daughters as authorities took her to be fingerprinted in what is likely to be the last time the family will interact in the foreseeable future. Even though two of the minor victims now are 18 and wish to see Manning, Boles said statutes prohibit child-sex offenders from visitation with their victims.
He said the defense is welcome to analyze that law or find case law that explains how the situation works if a minor victim is now an adult and wishes to visit their offender, but for the time being no visitation will be allowed.
Thomas was sentenced in October to 30 years in state prison, and Doug Manning was sentenced in December to 30 years in state prison.
Escambia Co. FL
Waco: Local man indicted for continuous
sexual abuse of a child
By Staff
WACO, Texas (KWTX) A Waco man was indicted Wednesday for continuous sexual abuse of a child and indecency with a child in connection with incidents that happened several years ago.
Jimmy Leroy Betters, 44, was arrested in October in Bell County after an investigation that started in August when Waco police received a report in August as part of a Child Protective Services referral that between 2007 and 2010, a child reported the abuse took place in a South Waco home, police said.
The investigation led police to believe the victim, who was younger than 12 at the time of the abuse, knew the man who abused her but was fearful to report the abuse.
The victim, who now is an adult, was interviewed several times by police and at the culmination of the investigation, detectives were able to obtain a warrant for Better’s arrest.
He remains jailed in lieu of $250,000 bond.
Jury begins deliberation in child sex abuse case
By WILLIAM MORRIS
OWATONNA, Minnesota — The week-long criminal sexual conduct trial for Sean Wocelka of Owatonna is now in the jury’s hands.
Wocelka was charged in December 2015 with three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct for allegedly sexually touching a young female relative from the time she was 5 until she was 8. Wocelka did not testify during the trial.
The prosecutor in the case, Assistant Steele County Attorney Julia Ann Forbes, stressed in her closing remarks that the alleged victim had no reason to lie, and said there was no evidence of animosity within the family that would cause others to put her up to lying about the allegations.
“She has nothing to gain by the outcome of her trial either way. This is not a civil case where she stands to make a monetary gain,” she said. “She does not have a motive to make up what happened.”
What happened, she said, was that over a period of years, Wocelka repeatedly touched the girl’s genitals, both with his hands and with a toy animal. The girl first reported the contact in 2012, and was interviewed by social workers at that time, but no case was pursued until 2015, when teachers noticed the girl behaving inappropriately at school and reported it to the school social worker.
Forbes said the child’s statements to relatives and professionals consistently described the experiences and noted the behavior shown and comments made by the girl in forensic interviews were consistent with what research has found in other victims of sexual abuse.
“The abuse she described to you is real, and she is talking about real experiences that happened to her,” she said. “If [the girl] is saying the touching is happening to her, and we have all this testimony as to her actions and behavior, it’s because the touching did happen.”
Assistant Public Defender Adrianne McMahon, though, told jurors that the state’s case had too many holes. She attacked the forensic interviews conducted with the child, pointing out ways she said they did not follow best practices and could have led the girl to give the answers the interviewer was looking for rather than what actually happened.
“If there wasn’t a need for the protocol, there wouldn’t be a protocol,” McMahon said. “The protocol was developed by researchers in this field, and … they made the protocol because children can’t always be reliable witnesses. We know that if you don’t follow those, you disregard it, that can result in allegations that aren’t true, a child responding to what the adult says.”
She criticized Owatonna Police Department’s investigation, complaining detectives failed to resolve apparent contradictions in the child’s testimony such as where and when she received the toy animal allegedly used in the assaults. And the allegations themselves, she said, were inconsistent, bizarrely unbelievable, and hard to square with the times that the girl was spending time with Wocelka.
“Some of what [the girl] testified to can’t be true because we have other evidence that directly contradicts it,” she said. “Every time she tells it, it’s different. Every time she tells it, there’s changes, and these are not minor discrepancies. These are the core of her statement that are changing. These are major, major differences. … The police failed to do their job, [the social worker] failed to do her job, and the State failed to do its job.”
Forbes took the podium one last time to defend the integrity of the forensic interviews, to point out that the discrepancies McMahon pointed out were largely unrelated to the elements needed to prove the case and thus not pursued by police, and most importantly addressed McMahon’s argument that it defied reason for Wocelka to simply touch the girl without any further action over such a long period of time.
“Why would someone do this for three years without any change? Because nothing happened after the first disclosure [in 2012],” Forbes said. “That’s why it makes sense the sexual abuse would continue.”
The jury was released at about 12:30 p.m. to its deliberations in a converted conference room in the fire hall. As of deadline Tuesday, no verdict had been announced.
Owatonna, MN
Former North Richland Hills church nursery worker accused in child sex abuse case
BY RYAN OSBORNE
A former volunteer at St. John the Apostle Catholic Church in North Richland Hills was arrested Wednesday, accused of sexually abusing children while working in the church nursery.
Francisco Guevara, 65, of Colleyville faces two charges of continuous sexual abuse of a child and one charge of indecency with a child, police said.
The allegations stem from incidents that happened up to seven years ago when the victims were between 4 and 7 years old, police said.
Two of the offenses happened in North Richland Hills and one in Colleyville, police said.
The Catholic Diocese of Fort Worth notified police and the congregation of the allegations after one of the victims came forward in July.
The diocese also offered counseling to victims and their families, which is standard protocol anytime abuse is reported, spokesman Pat Svacina said.
In a statement Wednesday, the diocese said Guevara was banned from church activities after the allegations were made.
“The Diocese is committed to providing a safe environment for children,” the statement said. All clergy, employees and volunteers are required to undergo special training, and criminal background checks are conducted, according to the statement.
According to a letter sent to congregation members by the diocese in July, several children reported that the sexual abuse took place on church property during evening prayers.
“It is not easy to speak about the reports of abuse to a parish community,” Bishop Michael Olsen said in the letter. “It is important, however, for you to know that the Diocese is ready to reach out to those who have been hurt and need help, that we might assist in any way we can.”
Guevara was being held Wednesday in the North Richland Hills Jail with bail set at $125,000.
A former priest at the same church, Philip Magaldi, who died in 2008, was accused of sexual abuse starting around 1994. Magaldi, who was accused of abusing three young men, was being defrocked when he died.
North Richland Hills, TX
Tulsa Woman Charged For Permitting
Child Sexual Abuse
BY: NEWSON6
TULSA, Oklahoma - A Tulsa woman was charged with permitting child sexual abuse in her home, according to online court documents.
Marisela Silverston, 38, was arrested Wednesday morning.
The child told a teacher that a man in the home was sexually touching her, police said.
The child also told Silverston about it, Silverston confronted the man and he apologized but Silverston never asked the man to leave because he was helping out financially, police said.
The man, Ruzvel Martinez, 37, was arrested January 10, 2017, and was charged with sexual abuse of a child under 12 years old, according to online court records.
Silverston has a January 25 court date and Martinez is scheduled to appear in court February 10.
Slidell man booked with child sex abuse;
sheriff says there may be more victims
ST. BERNARD PARISH, LA (WVUE) -
A Slidell man has been booked with sexual abuse of a young Chalmette girl, and authorities are trying to determine if there are other victims in other states where he has lived, according to St. Bernard Parish Sheriff James Pohlmann.
The abuse took place in the early 2000s.
Timothy Gemelli, 54, who lived on Fazzio Drive in Chalmette at the time, is being held in St. Bernard Parish Prison in lieu of a $400,000 bond. The Sheriff’s Office has not released details of what led to his arrest.
Detectives are trying to determine if there were other victims in Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Mississippi and Slidell.
Several women who were girls at the time Gemelli lived in Colorado are expected to meet with authorities in a town there, Pohlmann said.
Gemelli was booked with indecent behavior with a juvenile girl in St. Bernard Parish in 1981. He was credited with time served and placed on probation after pleading guilty. He was also arrested for aggravated battery in St. Bernard in 1982 after he shot a woman. The victim survived, and Gemelli received a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to negligent injury.
Anyone with information about other possible sex abuse cases involving Gemelli is asked to call the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff’s Office at (504) 271-2501 or Crimestoppers at (504) 822-1111.
Chalmette, LA
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