Murderer on parole arrested for CSA - Idaho
Children's pastor on parole arrested again - Alabama
Psyche-eval for woman for CSA of baby - New York
2 men from same town in separate CSAs - Texas
Man charged with continuous CSA - Texas
Man charged with CSA of girl under 11 - New York
Man sentenced for CSA with 7 or 8 y/o - Minnesota
18 y/o convicted of sodomy of 9 y/o - Missouri
Marine Colonel facing more charges - N. Carolina
Kuna convicted murderer on parole charged with
sexual abuse of a child
DANIELLE WILEY
MERIDIAN — A man convicted of murder was arrested and charged with sending lewd photos to a 15-year-old girl in Meridian.
Jeremy Lee Schmitz, 34, of Kuna, was charged by the Meridian Police with felony sexual abuse of a child under 16. He is also accused of violating his parole for a second-degree murder charge from 1997, according to the Meridian Police Department. The second-degree murder case stems from Kootenai County.
Meridian Police Department Deputy Chief Tracy Basterrechea said Schmitz allegedly met the victim on a website called letgo.com. The website works as a place for people to buy and sell items locally. The website is not as popular as some other trading websites such as craigslist.com.
“I haven't even heard of it before,” Basterrechea said.
Police allege that Schmitz continued to text the girl even after he learned she was only 15. Schmitz allegedly sent her sexually explicit photos through text messages that contained images of his genitals. He then allegedly asked the teen if she would meet with him for sex.
According to Basterrechea, when the girl's parents found the messages on her phone, they called the police. Schmitz, who unsuccessfully tried to meet the girl on a previous day, was found at his parole office in Kuna and was arrested. He was then booked in Ada County Jail on Jan. 12.
According to court records, Schmitz served 16 years of a life sentence after he was charged with murder in 1997. He was released on parole in 2014.
Schmitz was 14 when he and an 18-year-old man killed a man during a robbery.
Schmitz will appear in court on Jan. 13 where a bond will be set and official charges will be made. Basterrechea said Schmitz can face time in prison, not to exceed 25 years. He can also face more charges because of his parole violation.
Kuna, Idaho
Former children's pastor arrested again for
child sex abuse
Patrick Ary
A former children's minister has been arrested again, less than a month after his initial arrest on sex abuse charges.
James Vernon McNeal, 39, was arrested Thursday on a charge of sexually abusing a child less than 12 years old.
McNeal, who worked at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Hazel Green for six years, was also arrested Dec. 15 on two counts of sexually abusing a child under 12. He had been out on $60,000 bond before his arrest Thursday.
McNeal was accused of inappropriately touching a child at the church when he was arrested in December. Authorities could not be reached Thursday for information on the nature of his latest arrest.
He was fired from his job at the church in December.
Hazel Green, AL
Judge orders mental health evaluation for woman in
child sexual abuse case
By MIKE HIBBARD
CANANDAIGUA — Ontario County Judge Frederick Reed has ordered a mental health evaluation for a Clifton Springs woman arrested in a sexual abuse investigation involving two children, including a baby.
Reed ordered the 730 evaluation for Janiet Simonds during a court proceeding Wednesday. First Assistant District Attorney Jim Ritts said a 730 evaluation is to determine if Simonds is mentally competent to proceed in her case.
Simonds and her boyfriend, Tristan Mayes, face charges of predatory sexual assault against a child, a class A felony punishable by up to life in prison.
State police arrested Mayes and Simonds in July. Mayes is accused of sexually assaulting an infant last year and this year, as well as another child. Simonds is accused of engaging in sexual contact with Mayes while the children were abused.
Mayes later was charged by state police with promoting an obscene sexual performance by a child. Police said between March 2015 and June 2016, Mayes made a video of himself engaging in sexual contact with a 1-year-old girl.
Mayes also was in court Wednesday for a possible plea deal in his case. Ritts, who is prosecuting Mayes and Simonds, said the district attorney’s office has made an offer of 30 years to life in prison for both Mayes and Simonds if they plead guilty.
Reed adjourned Mayes’ case until Jan. 20 to give him time to talk to family members about a possible plea.
Simonds is due back in court Feb. 16.
Clifton Springs, NY
Two indicted in alleged sexual abuse of children
Timothy Chipp , Abilene Reporter
A Taylor County grand jury on Thursday indicted two men suspected of sexually abusing or assaulting children in separate incidents.
Jose Alonso Gonzalez, 37, of Edinburg, was indicted on a charge of continuous sexual assault of a child in connection with incidents that allegedly occurred between January and April 2010.
Also indicted was Marshall Keith Carter, 20, on a count of continuous sexual abuse of a child stemming from an incident that allegedly occurred as late as October 2014.
According to court documents, Gonzalez is suspected of touching a 10-year-old female relative inappropriately while also touching himself through his boxers.
Gonzalez originally was held on $100,000 bond but was released from the Taylor County Jail to another agency, according to jail records.
According to court documents, Carter is accused of putting his sex organ in the mouth of a male relative on multiple occasions between September 2013 and October 2014.
The boy also told police that the suspect also touched him inappropriately in other ways, the documents said.
According to the court documents, Carter was interviewed and confessed to asking the boy to perform oral sex on him but said that the boy never told him to stop. He allegedly said it happened three or four times.
According to jail records, Carter originally was held at the Taylor County Jail on a $40,000 bail bond.
Edinburg, TX
Waco: Police make arrest in continuous
sexual abuse of child case
By Paul J. Gately
WACO, Texas (KWTX) A Waco man was held Friday in the McLennan County Jail charged with continuous sexual abuse of a child in a case involving a girl younger than 14.
Reynaldo Antonio Sanchez, 30, was ordered held on a $75,000 bond.
Waco police arrested Sanchez after a lengthy investigation into a report that a girl younger than 14-years-old and who is acquainted was sexually abused a number of times over a period of weeks by a man with whom she was acquainted.
An arrest affidavit says the suspect and the victim had been in close proximity for a period of time and finally ended up alone together.
The suspect forced himself on the girl on several occasions when they were alone and without her consent, Waco police Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton said.
The assaults happened at a North Waco apartment complex, Swanton said.
Endicott man charged in sexual abuse of child
Katie Sullivan
An Endicott man is facing a sexual abuse charge related to an incident on Jan. 7, according to the Endicott Police Department.
Stewart A. Sceranka, 38, was taken into custody Friday and charged with first-degree sexual abuse as the result of an investigation regarding an incident at an Endicott residence, officials said.
During the incident, police said, Sceranka subjected a female victim under the age of 11 to sexual contact.
He was arraigned in Village of Endicott Court and remanded to the Broome County jail without bail, according to a report.
Endicott, NY
Former Alborn man sentenced to 13 years for
child sexual abuse
By Tom Olsen Today
A former Alborn man was sentenced to nearly 13 years in prison Friday for sexually abusing a girl when she was about 7 or 8 years old.
Shane Anthony Spicer, 43, of Wadena, Minn., was convicted by a St. Louis County jury on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in August.
Authorities said the victim, now 16, came forward in February 2014 and was interviewed at the First Witness Child Abuse Resource Center in Duluth.
She told a social worker that she had been sexually penetrated by Spicer when she was 7 or 8 years old. The girl, who was known to Spicer, reported that he threatened her and ordered her not to tell anyone.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Theresa Neo imposed the guideline 154-month prison term.
"The court does not take this lightly," the judge said in handing down the sentence. "Mr. Spicer has been convicted of a very serious crime."
The victim did not attend the hearing but did submit a statement that was read to the court by Assistant St. Louis County Attorney Kristen Swanson. She said she has had to deal with emotional effects of the abuse and had to move away from her hometown.
"I wish none of this ever happened," she said in the statement. "I wish my life was normal."
Swanson asked the judge to execute a prison sentence within state sentencing guidelines for a first-degree criminal sexual conduct conviction, which range from about 12 to 14 years.
Defense attorney Cynthia Evenson said a probationary sentence with some term of local confinement, during which he could receive treatment, was more appropriate. She noted that Spicer was out of custody for two years while the charges were pending.
Anna Fratzke, who said she has been in a relationship with the defendant for four years, asked for leniency from the judge. She said Spicer has been a loving member of her family and father to her children.
"I don't know what happened 10 years ago," she said. "I just can tell you what I know of him now."
Swanson, however, said a psychosexual evaluation ordered after Spicer was convicted showed that he was uncooperative and posed a high-risk to reoffend.
The prosecutor also pointed to a 2012 conviction Spicer has for deprivation of parental rights, in which she said he impregnated a girl who was under 18.
"He has a history of improper sexual relationships with people under the age of 18," Swanson said. "This is not an opinion. These are established facts. The defendant has sexual issues involving minors."
Spicer was acquitted in the St. Louis County case on four other criminal sexual conduct charges. Prosecutors had alleged that he also abused two preteen boys, though jurors rejected those charges after six hours of deliberation on Aug. 31.
Spicer did not address the court before receiving his sentence. Evenson indicated that an appeal is likely.
Wadena, MN
Guilty plea entered in Lawrence County
child sexual abuse case
Jeff Lehr
MOUNT VERNON, Mo. — A rural Mount Vernon teen pleaded guilty this week in Lawrence County Circuit Court to the sexual abuse of a 9-year-old girl.
Andrew M. Koch, 18, pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of first-degree sodomy in a plea agreement with special prosecutor Matt Selby that would dismiss two additional counts of first-degree sodomy that Koch was facing. A special prosecutor was appointed in the case because of a conflict of interest in the Lawrence County prosecutor's office.
Circuit Judge Jack Goodman postponed acceptance or rejection of the plea bargain, and ordered a sentencing assessment of the defendant. The judge set a sentencing hearing for March 13.
The girl's mother reported her suspicions that her daughter had been molested in August 2016, and the girl was interviewed at the Children's Center in Monett. The girl told child abuse investigators with the Missouri Department of Social Services and the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department that the defendant had sexual contact with her about five times between December 2015 and June 2016.
Mt Vernon, Missouri
Colonel Accused of Child Sex Abuse Behind Bars After New Allegations
by Hope Hodge Seck
A Marine colonel facing charges of child sexual assault and abuse has been sent to the brig after new allegations of wrongdoing.
Col. Daniel Wilson, 55, the former operations officer for II Marine Expeditionary Force, was ordered to pre-trial confinement today after new allegations of misconduct were reported to Naval Criminal Investigative Service in the course of the investigation into his previous alleged wrongdoing, according to an announcement from II MEF.
Military.com broke the news in November that Wilson, a 36-year Marine officer, faced charges including three counts of sexual assault and sexual abuse of a child; four counts of assault and battery on a child under age 16; one count of failure to obey an order or regulation; and nine counts of conduct unbecoming an officer. According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, the alleged victim was six years old.
The unit didn't immediately respond to a Military.com request for information about what new allegations surfaced that resulted in Wilson's imprisonment.
Wilson had been removed from his job but allowed to continue working under II MEF aboard Camp Lejeune, North Carolina ahead of his first Article 32 investigative hearing. In light of the new allegations, the commanding general of II MEF, Maj. Gen. Walter Lee Miller Jr., ordered that Wilson be remanded to the brig.
According to the announcement, the Article 32 hearing to determine what sort of trial Wilson will face is currently scheduled for Jan. 31 aboard Camp Lejeune. The officer has two military defense attorneys, Lt. Col. Ben Ackison and Capt. Mark McCormick, and one civilian lawyer, Phillip Stackhouse.
"Wilson is presumed innocent of any alleged offenses and will be afforded the opportunity to defend himself against all charges," Lt. Col. Michael Armistead, spokesman for II MEF, said in a statement.
Camp LeJeune, NC
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